Maria Hanson MBE speaks to Rupal Rajani

30 March 2020

Rupal Rajani
Today, we’re talking to Maria Hanson MBE. You are, Maria, the Founder of a charity called Me & Dee. Tell me a little bit about the Charity.

Maria Hanson
So, many people wonder where the name comes from, Me and Dee. So, I was extremely ill for many years and had 18 rounds of surgery. Many of those were lifesaving. Through that process I ended up homeless with my daughters, and my close cousin Delia, who had cancer, and I tried to get tried to get help from Charities, and we found because I couldn’t tick a box, and didn’t tick a box, lots of issues, that I couldn’t get any help.
And so we literally decided to set up our own charity, which would be for parents or children facing any life threatening situation or life shortening situation, I should say, to help them make memories as a family, without the need for tick boxes. So it’s not age dependant, salary dependant, gender dependant or race dependant. It’s a person in the family that does have very long to live.

We were all set to go with that when Delia haemorrhaged and died from her cancer in December 2005 and so that’s why its Me and Dee. Many people spell it mee and all sorts of ways but it’s actually me, the ‘I’. I am ‘Me’, and ‘D’ was Delia. And that’s the story of it.

Rupal Rajani
Tell me a little bit then about the support then that you actually provide?

Maria Hanson
We originally started as a ‘treat’ charity but now at this stage nearly fourteen years on, we are fundraising for a huge lodge in Sherwood Forest. What we do is we provide a simple, just the family together, holiday.

The last seven years it’s been at the seaside. My health and quite a lot of factors has made that very difficulty now. So we’re moving it closer to home, in a very quiet spot in Sherwood Forest. A huge lodge with lots of room in it. Right in a very, very peaceful corner of the forest, with a hot tub.

And this will allow families just to go together. Get away from the hospital, home, fall outs over money, over bills. Siblings that can’t be with the family because their being babysat while parents are at the hospital. Just to give the family a few days together, in a wonderful calm and peaceful place with nothing to pay for other than their food and entertainment. They don’t pay for the holiday.

Rupal Rajani
And what sort of impact has that actually had?

Maria Hanson
We’ve had lots of wonderful messages, pictures, testimonials, just on that very thing.

What we do is, there’s only Mark and I. There are only two people that run this charity. I’m unsalaried. And what we do is arrange it so that the families just literally pull up, and go in. They got nothing to think about. The beds are all made up in beautiful bedding. Lovely white fluffy towels. The hot tub. There’s a big frig freezer, so they can go out and do their shopping. And most of what we get is the normality. It was just a few days normality. They didn’t have to think about going online and booking a holiday initially, which is hard work even in your in full health. But just to get away, have a few days of normality in a very peaceful place.

They get back together. We have cupboards full of board games and all that sort of thing. So, they can just have that time as a family.

Rupal Rajani
You’ve helped over three thousand families to do just that, haven’t you?

Maria Hanson
That’s right. That has involved quite a few schemes along the way of those nearly fourteen years. A Comfort Pack Scheme. A Treat Scheme, and different things. So, it’s going to be probably one and half thousand families will have had holidays from us in these years that we’ve been doing it.

Rupal Rajani
You have an MBE.

Maria Hanson
I do.

Rupal Rajani
You won a Pride of Britain Award

Maria Hanson
Yes

Rupal Rajani
You’ve also won an East Midlands’ Women’s Awards too,

Maria Hanson
Absolutely

Rupal Rajani
Tell us a little bit about that.

Maria Hanson
The… All three or just the East Midlands Women’s Award?

Rupal Rajani
Tell us about all three.

Maria Hanson
All three. Pride of Britain fundraiser. That was a big surprise. I, up to that point, before Mark joined me, ran Me and Dee alone. Over seven days a week. So, one of the things Dee and I said was that we’d have our phones on 24 hours a day, and always been there for the families. So, that was a big surprise and a wonderful experience. It was obviously in London on the Pride of Britain bus and everything that went with it.

Got home and we had a very simple white envelop a few days later and I accused Mark of not paying the congestion charge in London, and got him to open it, and he said, “I think you’d better sit down.”

And that was it. I’d been awarded an MBE. When you look at the process of that, it’s quite amazing to have come through, and it still never seems real but obviously one big thing with awards is it’s fantastic for yourself.

Nobody nominates you for an award unless they believe in what you’re doing. That the very fact. So for me, that gives me great strength. The fact that people believe in me is what spurs you on.

So that was a magnificent day with Mark and my daughters at Buckingham Palace with Prince Charles.

And then, yes, the EMWA awards. Sandra has support me personally because when you’re working on your own, for all of us whatever we do. If you’re a woman working on your own, then you need support to go through that.

And I used to find it quite pretentious to enter an award. I didn’t think it felt right but then speaking to Sandra, which was at the Cathedral Quarter in Derby a couple years ago, the strength that it could give to your charity to be promoted, I hadn’t taken that on board at all. And with her encouragement I entered last year and became, year before last, and was the Finalist, and this year won that accolade. And it’s absolutely amazing. That feeling when name’s read out. There’s not much to match it actually.

Rupal Rajani
You won the Outstanding Women of Community Impact, which is…is, you know, says quite a lot.

What was… Just explain what the process was like for you. You know, entering the EMWA awards?

Maria Hanson
Well, I’ve had other people enter awards for me before and got nowhere. And again, going back to that meeting Sandra in Derby, even though we corresponded online, meeting her and she’d encouraged that there isn’t anybody really that knows yourself, like yourself, and mine’s a big story to tell. And also, I don’t show myself out loud, so a lot of people that might enter for me wouldn’t know all the finer details.

And so I took heart from that and thought I’d just slap myself around the face with a wet kipper, over that feeling that it was a pretentious thing to do and looked at the publicity that might bring back for the charity, even nominated.

And so to become a finalist, you know, was really great, but to get this accolade for such a title. You know it was a massive title. And I know there were other people in the room, and I was sat back waiting to see them go up to the stage and get that.

So, not just for me. Mark was with me. He works 7 days a week with me. A couple of supports at the immediate table. And then to put that out online. But the actual process, I’m sorry, I went off there, but the actual process was very simple, and some awards are, and some aren’t, filling the nomination form.

I think what I would say to anybody is take your time filling in that form, which I’ve learnt myself. I use a word document now and keep adding to it and taking away, and reading it and getting the word count right, and them pasting it in when I feel I’ve done the very best that I can. And then just waiting to hear.

And then the fabulous pre-awards dinner, where you meet people who are also nominated and finalists. And then the big night. You know, it does feel pretentious to me anyone. It was a huge celebration of getting through 13 years of a charity.

I’m disabled myself, as I’ve mentioned, I had all those surgeries. I walk with two sticks. So, having things that lift you. That I can also say to other disabled women. There are other support groups and many of those will be full of very despondent women. Women and men. And I think if other people can see you. I’ve got two Stoma bags, crutches. And if people can see, gosh she’s done that. You know, thirteen and a half years for any small business or charity, I’m proud of.

And what Sandra does with her awards is she allows you to feel very proud of yourself but what she does is she allows all your contacts and your wider contacts feel proud of you too. And that is invaluable I feel.

Rupal Rajani
So, it’s had a massive impact?

Maria Hanson
It certainly has. Yes, because you become not just the tired disabled, you know, woman running a charity. You become. You’re already a woman of worth but you can shout out that you’re a woman of worth. And people join in with you with the power of social media. And it’s a bag and people say you don’t need badges, but you do need badges because anything that gives you strength to shout about your position helps.

So, I would say, greatly and encourage others, and will always be grateful to Sandra for the support that she gives.

Rupal Rajani
I was going to ask, what would you say to others about the East Midlands Women’s Awards, and how important it is to nominate either yourself or nominate another woman that you think is worthy?

Maria Hanson
I think we should do that because you don’t know you’ve won until you’ve won. You’re all in that same game. But I feel that being celebrated for your achievements, even when you’re nominated. When you’re nominated, you’re going to get a little badge to put on your website or on your social media pages to say you’ve been nominated. That’s the first step.

I’ve been nominated, somebody believed in me enough or I believed in myself enough to go for this award. And I feel that it’s really important that we get together and do that.

Rupal Rajani
Brilliant. Wow! Well done.

Maria Hanson
(Laughter)

Rupal Rajani
That was great.