The Girl Who Wouldn't Look Away: Samantha Ward OBE's episode

By Sandy Glanfield

So much of what Samantha said just felt like home.

Sam has always had a fierce, clear sense of right and wrong, and when she knows something is the right thing to do, she does not let go of it. She finds another way. She keeps going. There is a word I love for this and it is gumption. (You can read more of my thoughts about it here.) Sam has it in abundance, alongside the grit and tenacity to match. And I recognise that quality deeply, that feeling in your chest when you know something matters, when you want to help, when you simply cannot look away. Listening to Sam, I felt that. But I also felt her warmth, her lightness, and her genuine delight in people and in life. That joy is not incidental to who she is. I think it is central to it. We laughed a lot.

I noticed the power in the word ‘we’. Sam does not say I. She says we. We knew it was the right thing to do. We just felt it so strongly. And you can hear in the way she tells it how much she loves being part of that, the energy of a team who believe in something together, who bring their whole selves to it. That combination of shared conviction and collective joy in doing good is, I think, exactly what the world needs more of right now.

And what moves me most is the evidence of what happens when you lean into that. When you put the call out and trust people to respond, they do. If you need me, I will help. That is not a broken society. That is a deeply human one. GoVo feels to me like a beautiful expression of that trust.

There is a principle that sits at the heart of so much of this, what many call the golden rule: treat others and the planet as you would wish to be treated yourself. Sam's whole life, her work, her conviction, the quiet certainty of if you need me, I will help, is a living expression of that. And she carries it all with such lightness and such love. I find that genuinely, deeply hopeful.

Sam ends by doing something rather beautiful. She speaks directly to her younger self, the little girl who could not bear injustice and would not stop asking why. Keep your curious soul and your conviction, she tells her. Find joy. Be kind. I left our conversation feeling like she was passing that on to all who listen.