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Choirs, Sexual Assault on University Campuses, Retirement, Losing Your Belongings

Sexual assault on university campuses, what singing can do for your mental health, adventures in retirement, and what does it feel like to lose all your belongings?

Presented by Jenni Murray.

A 16 year-old young woman looking at universities came across the St Andrews Survivors page on Instagram with more than 100 stories of sexual assault. She only read a couple but consequently wiped St Andrews off her potential university list. Her mother, a Woman鈥檚 Hour listener, wrote to us to saying she felt universities are not doing enough to address this problem, and was concerned with the impact this could have on young women going to university. Jenni is joined by Sara Khan, NUS Vice President for Liberation and Equality for an update on a problem that has been raised many times in the last few years. How successful have universities been in addressing this?

What singing can do for your mental health? We hear how much some listeners are missing being part of choirs, and also from those who have been finding alternative ways to sing as a group online and even outdoors. Jenni discusses the issues with listener Carolyn Acton, Sandra Colston, MD Funky Choir MD and Liesbeth Tip Clinical psychologist at the School of Health and Social Science at University of Edinburgh.

Listener Jan Courtney describes her experience of retiring and finding it hard to adjust to her new life, and describes meeting 鈥渏uicy crones鈥 鈥搊ther women of a certain age who are having adventures and doing extraordinary things.

Listener, Eve, lost all of her belongings when she was a student. She would like to know how other people cope when it happens to them. She joins Jenni, along with Pat Plumbridge and Sue Hepworth, to discuss what was lost, how they came to terms with this, the items they miss and how the experience has shaped their attitude to possessions.

Producer: Louise Corley
Editor: Karen Dalziel

Available now

46 minutes

Broadcast

  • Fri 28 Aug 2020 10:00

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