One of the founders of The Pearl Exchange, Rose Bamford, looks back on the first five years of the organisation and how it has helped young people in the area following the death of her daughter Pearl.
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00:00She was so spirited and very deep and thoughtful and caring but rebellious and crazy and wild
00:12and creative, like so creative just it sort of poured out of her.
00:18I think she felt a lot of the time she felt different from other people and quite isolated
00:23but she was also, she came across super confident so you wouldn't always know that she was struggling
00:29and I think that goes for a lot of people and I just think it's time of year as well,
00:33people can hide away and you don't always know that your friends are actually struggling
00:38and it's important to sort of reach out to people and just check on friends
00:43and when we started up the Pearl Exchange we wanted, well just Pearl naturally became the guiding star,
00:54the guiding light to what we did so we were always thinking would she have come to that or would she have liked that.
01:02I think Pearl would love it, I think she would be scared of coming too
01:07and I think there's a lot of anxiety about coming through that door
01:11and I think she would be one of those people too thinking everyone would be better than her
01:18but it's not like that, on the other side of the door it's so sweet
01:23and everyone's very caring and looking out for each other, it's like really vibrant
01:29and it is cool but in the nicest possible way.
01:33I think Pearl would have been really proud of that because that was what she was all about,
01:38being inclusive and non-judgmental.
01:43This is Pearl's memorial anniversary, from her death has grown the Pearl Exchange,
01:51what it's giving to people and giving back to people is really important
01:57because I feel like when Pearl died it stripped so much from everyone
02:02and so it's almost like this is her giving back to the community
02:09and yeah, she's our guiding light and her free spirit
02:16and creativity radiates in the Pearl Exchange.