At the recent Pride of Britain Awards Sir Rod Stewart made the grand gesture of donating a large sum of
money to Katie Walke, a businesswoman who was receiving the Prince’s Trust Young Achiever Award. Sir
Rod was there presenting Walke with her award for her work running a beauty salon in Liverpool that
helps victims of domestic violence and offers a safe place for them to talk about their ordeals and receive
beauty treatments as a way of therapy, which was she opened with support from The Prince’s Trust in
2013.
Whilst on stage, Sir Rod spoke about how we wanted to give her business a boost and ‘keep it going and
up and running.’ The situation left the award winner emotional and speechless which is not surprising as
then Sir Rod spoke into the crowd to Lord Alan Sugar and asked him to double his initial amount.
Walke had too been a victim of domestic violence from a previous partner who left her needing countless
surgeries to reconstruct her face after every bone in her face was broken from a vicious attack. Walke
describes opening her salon as a way of rebuilding her life after her tragic incident that put her life on
hold. The salon is meant to be a sign of how life can get better and that there is a life after everything
that happens and is now using social media as a way to find victims to help by asking for nominations of
people who are going through a difficult period to allow them to have treatments at her salon.
Katie said the next steps for her business is to train victims of abuse in hair and beauty as a way of putting
their focus into something positive and to also train the staff working at the salon in counselling to make
sure there is extra support for those who need it.
Written By: Calla
He discovered the gem when he was 12 years old and still has it now, claiming it to be why he fell in love with music. He likes to play disc golf when he's not writing about music. He is a one-of-a-kind individual who is always the first to bust out his air guitar on the dance-floor.