March around Lancaster city centre highlights violence against women

Organiser Anna Hopkins started the march with a speech urging women to make a stand on violence against women and girls, and men to equip themselves with the knowledge on this issue in order to be able to intervene more effectively.

The march went around the city centre, led by Ruth Colbridge by calling out various phrases to highlight the cause of the march.

The march was met with a mixed response from local residents, with some beeping their car horns in support; however at one point bottles were thrown at the back of the group, almost hitting a 14-year-old boy taking part.

Reclaim the Night was the final event in a series of events organised across Lancaster that formed part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an initiative started by the United Nations in 1991, and the official colour of the campaign is orange.

Residents attending the march were joined together by holding a long piece of orange material and each person was given an orange strip to mark the colour of the campaign.

Anna said: “We were delighted to receive some funding from the Lancaster community service community fund which meant we were able to raise some money for local charity Safenet and buy Christmas presents for women and children staying in the refuges during Christmas.”