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A bit knackered but very proud of the Akwaaba volunteers today. For obvious reasons we couldn’t run our usual Sunday social drop-in session for refugees & asylum seekers, but instead the community pulled together and adapted to prepare and distribute more than a hundred cooked meals and takeaway food parcels to families & individuals struggling to meet basic needs during the pandemic, those in situations of destitution and homelessness who may not otherwise get a decent meal all week. Thank you to our hosts St Paul’s West Hackney Church for putting us up, food donors including @nandosuk & Rahim’s Wholesalers, the wider Akwaaba community and of course real life superhero chef Yusuf ❤️ If you’re feeling down about the gravity of our current situation, I hope you can find some light in the support and sense of community being shone everywhere. Sending you love and positivity, happy Sunday, peace out ✌🏽

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A bit knackered but very...

s t a y i n g p o s i t i v e In difficult times we’re incredibly lucky to have this platform as a resource and crutch. It’s so heartening to see outpourings of positivity & support being shared online. Here are some ideas to look after our physical & mental health during isolation. 💃🏾 DANCE - The happiest exercise!I’ve found tons of free, at-home dance workouts on YouTube and will keep posting links every day for you on stories (even if you don’t try them you can laugh at my moves). You don’t need equipment or much space. There’s Soca, Salsa, Street, Ballet, Reggaeton, Commercial...such a joyful way to keep active and get your cardio in, whether you follow choreography (picking up steps for the club after all this is over) or totally let go (party for one in the kitchen since we ain’t going out these days)! 📝 LOCKDOWN JOURNAL - Journalling is usually something I do sporadically for my mental health on down days, as a way of articulating feelings and ordering thoughts. If you’re anxious or uncertain at the moment, or your head’s scrambled from the bombardment of news, take a bit of time each day to just get it all out onto paper: as long or short as you want/need, doesn’t have to be high literature just a stream of consciousness or recap of what you did that day. It’s cleansing, helps give you perspective, re-centres and is a great creative outlet. 📸 DAILY SNAPS - Just as it’ll be interesting to read back your journal entries in future, why not accompany with a pic a day, for a snapshot of your own experience of history as the global situation shifts & develops so rapidly. Even better if you can put your phone down and take a non-digital image on a polaroid or disposable camera if you have one. Been enjoying pritsticking my @instaxhq pics next to each day’s journal entry #sticky 👌🏽 ☀️🧘🏽‍♀️ - This might work for you: take a deep breath in for a count of 10, hold for 10, then out for 10. Repeat 10 times: v calming. I’ll also post good yoga, Pilates, barre & meditation videos to follow that will hopefully help you refocus. Take your outdoor exercise allowance & GET THAT ONCE-A-DAY VIT D GODDAMNIT! 📞 KEEP TALKING - One word: Houseparty. #stayhome

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s t a y i...

In difficult times of relentless, overwhelming news coverage it’s more important than ever to make sure we’re getting the facts straight. I’ve been working on this project with @bbcbitesize to help kids and teens (& parents!) spot misinformation & stop the spread of fake news. If you or your kids have been distressed by the rolling headlines, please check out the swipe up link in my story or visit the @bbc Bitesize website and share. In tumultuous circumstances like the #coronavirus pandemic, let’s ensure we digest news healthily, share it responsibly and use it effectively, so we can all take the correct advice and actions #factorfake #fakenews #bbcbitesize #covid

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In difficult times of relentless,...

‘To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in it’s perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colours of a rainbow’ - Maya Angelou. So many of us are apart from our mother figures today, but the outpouring of love is palpable and beautiful. Happy Mother’s Day mum, I wish I could be with you, you deserve the world, thank you for being our rock, for the strength, the power, the words of wisdom, the hugs, the dancing, the chats til 5am, the long walks to see the special cows (they were ponies) and your favourite tree. Thank you for the world and thank you for our family.

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‘To describe my mother would...

This slipped under my door 🖤 Let’s pay it forward and support our neighbours. Ways to help? -Covidmutualaid.org is an initiative to bring volunteers together with those who may be vulnerable or in need of support in your local community. -Workforce have been contacted by several NHS Trusts to help find people willing and able to work in roles in overstretched hospitals (call 01204 393 000 or 07494 129014) -Choose Love this Mother's Day if you're looking for a self-isolation friendly gift. My friends at @chooselove / Help Refugees and their grassroots network are doing everything they can to ensure that refugee mothers have the supplies they need to keep their families safe and well in these scary times as camps are overcrowded and unsanitary so it's more important than ever for us to do what we can. You can buy a basic wash bag complete with soap, sanitiser and all the other essentials, a month's supply of nappies or a whole bundle of love. There's also an ecard so if you're not seeing you mum you can send it to her! -I will keep posting links every day to great at-home, free dance and workout videos so you can keep mentally and physically healthy while self-isolating. Also you can laugh at my moves, which may help 🤷🏽‍♀️💗 If you liked the look of today’s @socanomics dance class, join @selenawatkins insta live session tomorrow, we can all have an Caribbean dance party in our living rooms, isolated, together. -A tip: use tins of baked beans as dumbbells.

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This slipped under my door...

Happy 60th Birthday to a Geordie legend and the man we love the most. Thank you for loving us back so fiercely, for caring so deeply, for sharing your wit, intelligence, passion and humour with the world, and for giving us your everything every day #kingnige

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Happy 60th Birthday to a...

#frockdown

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#frockdown

We’re back on @channel4 with more @crufts coverage and my heart is so full 🐕🐩🐶🥰😍😘 Thank you so much @sunsetandvinetv for so perfectly producing this canine celebration, fabulous @drpaul_thevet & lovely @dogtoradem you’ve been brilliant and I’ve learned so much! And @abbiemaymua for the entire weekend I love ya 💗

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We’re back on @channel4 with...

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News

Vick is a multi-lingual, multi-award-winning TV & radio presenter, journalist and published author. She is best known for her work on Capital Breakfast, ITV’s X Factor Xtra Bites, 4Music’s Trending Live, Sky One’s Carnage, BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing, E4’s Shipwrecked, and reporting for ITN, Channel 4, Sky Arts & Yahoo Sport. This year she released her debut children’s novel, Listen Up, won Marie Claire’s Future Shapers Broadcasting Powerhouse Award and was named one of Nike’s Women Who Changed The Game. Vick is a human rights activist working with Amnesty International and an ambassador for Help Refugees.

THRDS: Editorial

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  Check out pictures from my shoot with Jay London’s THRDS Magazine. It one of my favourites! Their first Styled By editorial and first My Style of 2018, these are the coolest outfits, ideas and loveliest team. Photos by Yoshitaka Kono http://www.thrds.co.uk/editorial/vick-hope/ …

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PLAYING CATCH-UP

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A wise friend once told me, “hey, Vick, it’s way better when you blog really infrequently, but when you do, just collate everything that’s happened over that long period of time into one piece so I don’t have constant reminders of new stuff you’re doing, just occasional, less annoying overviews”. Other friends – granted, those probably considerably more savvy in the …

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WE MADE IT!

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RED BULL CAN YOU MAKE IT 2016 / RED BULL TV / TELEGRAPH HILL 500 students from around the world set off on the adventure of a lifetime around Europe, and as they made their way towards the finish line in the heart of Paris, it was an absolute joy to document all of their journeys from our insane studio hub …

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BACK TO REALITY

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A tenuously-named blog about my post-Cuban-jaunt return to work, which mainly entailed interviewing some of reality TV’s finest, as well as Single-Ladies-hand-flapping with Rebel Wilson, and testing Sacha Baron Cohen’s nob(by knowledge)… GRIMSBY   …so let’s start with that, because it is pretty much the furthest you can get from anyone’s conception of reality ever. I’m talking: in a room with …

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THREE SIX FIVE

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Happy New Year,* ya filthy animals. I’m back from gallivanting around Cuba and back to gallivanting around assorted television studios. While away, the lovely lot at Three Six Five Club posted this feature from an interview I did with them last year. TSFC is an awesome site to browse through, providing “interviews and features with unique, inspiring and brilliant women – …

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VICK N MIX

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After months – nay, years – of ignoring my calls and messages, Little Mix finally let me* join the band. Persistence is key, folks. *did not let me Truthfully, these lovely ladies were a dream to interview. We chatted about the stupidly infectious Black Magic, co-writing Britney’s Pretty Girls, wanting a Spice World-esque film, X Factor, weddings and played a craftily-named …

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