Charity
Sadie was a volunteer mentor to young offenders at London’s Feltham Young Offenders Institute and HMP Aylesbury for four years, before creating independent charity projects to try and break the cycle of poverty and crime. In 2010 she mentored three persistent young offenders from The Prince’s Trust while sailing a 30 ft yacht to Venezuela. After meeting inmates inside anarchic El Rodeo Jail and being inspired by the work of Proyecto Alcatraz, the group persuaded teenage street gangs to disarm peacefully in Caracas slums.
She returned to the Caribbean with a new crew to help rebuild a dilapidated orphanage in Haiti. She later took part in the Tall Ships Race with a crew of disadvantaged young people from the Discovery Sailing Project.
In 2009 she mentored ten disadvantaged teenagers, chosen by The Prince’s Trust & La Sauvegarde, riding wild horses over 2800 KM from the South of France to London. At the end of their 6-month horseback odyssey, camping and riding every day, the horses were donated to RDA disabled riding schools. One of the young riders displayed such passion for communicating with horses, Sadie sponsored him to train as an apprentice at the homes of horse whisperers Monty Roberts in California and Susannah Gilmore in Spain.
She was invited to become an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust (now The King’s Trust) in 2009. In 2010 she took part in a charity cookbook, which helped raise funds for the Trust. She helped create opportunities for young people from The Prince’s Trust to write and record their music on the Trust’s Sound Live program.
From 2012-2014 Sadie was artistic director for London-based arts organization Art Saves Lives with Dean Stalham and David Frederick, creating arts opportunities for marginalized artists. After the trio disbanded, she co-founded Art Saves Lives International with artist Charlotte Farhan. She was patron of Frederick’s Reformed Foundation, a peer mentoring charity for ex-offenders in London and the South East of England, for several years before returning to Hong Kong.
A passionate mental health advocate, Sadie has written about her experiences with bipolar and ADHD for blogs, charities, magazines and anthologies. She’s also given interviews, taken part in panel discussions, and been lightly grilled by HKU students about the link between bipolarity and creativity in lively Q&As. On 14 April 2024 she was invited by the students of Li Po Chun United World College to give a TEDx talk on mental health. She’s made two docs and a series of podcasts about mental health for RTHK Radio 3. In 2020 she co-produced a bipolar love story film that went viral on YouTube, receiving over 25M views.
Her op-ed about bipolar Pressing Buttons was published by the SCMP June 2022. Her essay on why doing what she’s bad at improves her mental health was published by the China Daily Sept 2023. Her articles on why we need to change the way we talk about suicide and strategies to alleviate the mental health impact of climate change were published by the China Daily in 2024. Her most recent interviews about mental health can be found here and here.
She’s an ambassador for mental health charity Mind HK. In Nov 2022 she took part in an exhibition of art and letters by Mind ambassadors, More Than A Label, and on Nov 24 she shared poetry at Mind HK’s event Poetry for Mental Health: The Healing Power of Words. In Feb 2024 she took part in Mind HK‘s event Conversations of the Heart and on 4 March she was one of three ambassadors sharing humorous poetry in Poetry, Stories and Mental Health at the 2024 Hong Kong Lit Fest. In Aug 2024 she took part in an exhibition of stories and photography by Mind HK at the 3812 Gallery.
In 2014 she founded Bipolar Hong Kong 躁鬱香港: the SAR’s first (and only) peer-led support group for Hongkongers affected by bipolar disorder. In 2019 she set up Mental Ideas, a non-profit film & media platform to explore mental health in creative ways. She hopes to launch a Hong Kong Mental Health Film Festival in collaboration with Mind HK. She was a mentor for the Resolve Foundation‘s 2022 fellowship on Wellbeing Reimagined.
In 2020 she set up Home Kong Kitchen, a community enterprise to help food waste charities feed the homeless during the pandemic. The initiative quickly grew to provide food, clothing and other gifts for unlicensed shelters and homeless charities, including ImpactHK, Refugee Union and Breadline. In 2021 Sadie received a Happy Homes Award for Home Kong Kitchen from the Mission For Migrant Workers and a certificate of recognition for fundraising from Bethune House Refuge. In 2022 she received a certificate of recognition for supporting migrants during Hong Kong’s 5th Wave from Bethune House and the Mission for Migrant Workers.
Sadie loves people but she prefers animals. From 2011-2013 Sadie was a director for the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs & Burros in South Dakota, USA. The charity, dedicated to preserving America’s wild horse heritage, relocates horses set for slaughter to Native American land in the Badlands National Park.
Other charities Sadie has supported include Childline, NCH (as an Independent Visitor to kids in Care), Hong Kong charity Child Builder (as ambassador), Battersea Dogs Home & the Soi Dog Foundation.
If you have an idea for a project and you think Sadie can help, email sadie@mentalideas.org with an outline of your proposal!
TESTIMONIALS
“Dear Sadie, I just want to say how very grateful I am to you… It was marvelously encouraging to learn about how generous you have been with your time and money in helping young people from my Prince’s Trust and even more heartening to know what a difference you have managed to make to their lives through continuing to mentor them… I really don’t know what I would do without such incredibly special, warm hearted people such as yourself…. What you said about stereotypes and giving young people confidence through challenging activities is so true and exactly why I set up my Prince’s Trust in the first place…. This comes with my warmest good wishes and boundless thanks for your kindness and generosity to my Trust and to young people in general.”
– HRH Prince Charles
“YOU ARE A STAR!!!!! We loved the film and feel so proud of the invaluable work you are doing with our young people. I think you really bring out the best in the young people and the viewer can see what the Trust is all about.”
– Annie Lycett, Head of Ambassadors, The Prince’s Trust
“I had the privilege of meeting some of the young people from this project at a cinema screening of the completed documentary film. It was evident not only how much they had gained and benefited from the experience, but how much respect and love they all had for Sadie and how she herself had been such a pivotal part in turning their lives around. One young offender, a former heroin addict, had kicked his drug habit and was now teaching disabled children to sail. Another, a former violent teenage gang member in Glasgow, who had just served a long prison sentence for GBH when the project began, had just been offered a place at Edinburgh University to read Spanish the following year and was now doing charity work in France until he started university. The third, a homeless orphan and former drug dealer, had gained full-time employment and had just won a place in the UK National Youth Theatre at the time of the film screening. It was immediately obvious to myself, the young people themselves and all those who attended the screening and met the former young offenders that Sadie had transformed their lives.”
– Niall Fraser, Founding Director, Maverick TV and BBC One Director
“Sadie showed me that with a little help and support you can achieve so many great things and seize unbelievable chances. I experienced a totally different side of life…. Through Sadie I ended up going to Monty Roberts’ farm in California. Through her I met polo champion Carlos Gracida, who was the Queen’s favorite polo player and who taught Princes William and Harry to play, Susanna Gilmore, Sir Bob Geldof and others.”
– Luke Tucker, Former Prince’s Trust Mentee
“I like Sadie because she’s honest. She showed me that you can achieve your dreams if you’re prepared to work hard for them. The project was the best experience of my life. I think people have got sick and tired of me telling them about it, but I’m still gunna bang me teeth about it anyway!”
– Sam Todd, Former Young Offender & Prince’s Trust Mentee
“Sadie is like my Guardian Angel. She’s an interesting character, a beautiful person…. She gave me the confidence to believe in myself and basically saved my life.”
– Geoffrey Nganga, Former Young Offender & Prince’s Trust Mentee
“Sadie essentially changed my life. She’s such a warm, incredible person who I thank for having faith in me.”
– Christopher Tahanney, Former Young Offender & Prince’s Trust Mentee
“When I was banged up at Feltham, Sadie was my mentor for 3-4 years and came to visit me during that period for 2-3 hours every Saturday and sometimes on Sundays too…. She is such a warm and enthusiastic person, funny too, and I always looked forward to her visits…. Her enthusiasm and support got me through some dark and difficult times in my life…. We still keep in regular contact.”
– Dan Doran, Former Mentee at HMPYOI Feltham
Home Kong Kitchen
Charity Begins at Home Kong Kitchen – interview in Hong Kong Buzz
