“I remember wishing they would kill me to make it all end.” It takes courage to speak the unspeakable. But for many years, Madeleine Black felt too afraid and too ashamed to utter a word of what happened to her. Violently attacked at the age of thirteen, her story is one of pain – but also of healing, resilience and forgiveness. Madeleine uses her personal and moving story to shatter the shame, stigma and silence surrounding sexual violence And to show us that it’s not the events in our life that define us, but by how we choose to reclaim our lives after them.

How we become unbroken.

Through her words, Madeleine hopes to help others find the courage to speak up, whatever their story in order to live their life fully. Madeleine Black has an unusual personal  story which she uses to inspire and motivate others. She chose to forgive the two men who gang raped her at thirteen years old and she shares her story for many reasons. In March 2018 she won the Amazing Strength award at the No. 1 Magazine Amazing Women Awards and in October of the same year was asked to be the Patron for Say Women.

She is a 2 x TEDx speaker, a story teller for The Forgiveness Project and has recently become involved with their programme ‘RESTORE’, sharing her story in prisons.  In June 2020, she was asked to be Patron for ‘Justice Is Now’ and in December 2020 she was asked to be an Ambassador for Freedom From Abuse. She is a psychotherapist and her memoir, ‘Unbroken’, was published on April 4th 2017.