Mary Storrie - Turning a tragedy into something positive

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Nottingham Business School’s Business Leaders’ Podcast. Episode 44

Mary Storrie – Turning a tragedy into something positive

Introduction

• Mary Storrie is CEO of international charity The Rosie May Foundation.

• She and her husband Graham set up the Foundation after their daughter Rosie May was suffocated at a Christmas party near their home in Bottesford, Lincolnshire, in December 2003.

• A 17-year-old boy, who the family knew, was sentenced to life in prison for Rosie’s murder.

• In December 2004, Mary and Graham went on holiday to Sri Lanka, to escape memories of the previous year, and were caught up in the Asian Tsunami.

• More than 230,000 people died in the tsunami. But the couple survived – as did a tiny palm tree they had planted in Rosie May’s memory the previous day.

• In the last 20 years the Rosie May Foundation has raised more than three million pounds to educate children, empower women and help families lift themselves out of poverty.

• It established organisations in Sri Lanka after the tsunami and in Nepal after an earthquake there in 2015.

• It’s first project was building the Rosie May Home for Girls in Sri Lanka, for orphans who lost their parents in the tsunami.

• The Foundarion has also had great success training single-parent mums in Sri Lanka to be tuk-tuk taxi drivers, through its Think Pink campaign.

• Its staff rebuilt schools and established clean drinking water in Nepalese villages destroyed by the earthquake.

• The Rosie May Foundation has offices in Nottingham; Seenigama, Sri Lanka; and Tennyson, Australia.

Key takeaways

• On why Mary set up international charity The Rosie May Foundation…

“The charity has given me a channel for my grief – to turn something tragic into something positive. It’s given me a sense of purpose.”

• On studying for a degree and Masters, while running the Foundation…

“On reflection, [going to university] was the best thing I ever did. It gave me confidence. It opened so many doors for me.”

• On the Foundation’s work to empower women in Sri Lanka…

“We try to get to the root cause of the issue, which is always poverty. We try to get to women before they have no choice but to give their child to an orphanage.”

• On helping women in Sri Lanka to become Pink tuk tuk taxi drivers…

“We wanted to enable women to earn a man’s wage, in a man’s world.”

• On bringing Think Pink taxis to Britain…

“It’s always been my vision to bring the concept here. In the UK, less than three per cent of taxi drivers are women – for no good reason.”

• On the need for leaders like herself to have a succession strategy:

“I had a mentor who said: Tell me, what’s going to happen to your charity if you go under a Number 23 bus tomorrow? I said: Ah…”

• Mary’s advice for other leaders and would-be leaders…

“Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Every day!”

Related links

• Read more about Mary Storrie here

• Read more about Mary’s story here

• Read more about the Rosie May Foundation here