Louise Burfitt-Dons
Encyclopedia
Louise Olivian Burfitt-Dons (née Byres, born October 22, 1953) is an English writer, humanitarian and global warming
campaigner who is best known for her anti-bullying activism as the founder of the charity Act Against Bullying
.
district just south of Kuwait
City. Her father worked for Kuwait Oil Company and her mother ran a kindergarten. She had an elder brother Laurence (b. 1952). Burfitt-Dons was educated at the Anglo American School in Kuwait and later at the Hertfordshire and Essex High School
and Ashford School
for Girls in Kent. Both her brother and mother committed suicide and her father died of cancer when she was 26.
From 1975 she rented an attic flat in Belgravia
owned by Elspeth Rhys-Williams, a stoic human rights campaigner and daughter of Juliet Rhys-Williams
.
Burfitt-Dons has two daughters, Brooke (b. 1988), who graduated from University College London
in 2010 and works as a radio host, singer and actress, and Arabella (b. 1992), who is a student at the University of Nottingham
, by her pilot husband Donald Burfitt-Dons, a New Zealander of Danish extraction (Dons) who she met and married in London in 1982 while he was on an overseas basing with Qantas
. The couple lived in Australia between 1982 and 1993 where Louise worked as an actress and wrote plays for the Sydney stage. She co-starred in a dinner theatre show with Andrew Harwood
in 1988. She gave birth to both her children at the Portland Hospital
and now they live in London. They lived in the South of France for some years before moving back to the UK. Both children attended the Lady Eleanor Holles School
.
in society as a speaker and writer. She has advocated that tribalism is on the increase and has been taking effect in all forms of modern society leading to social unrest. Feeling the need to express what the public were confiding in her she designed a range of campaigns to promote human dignity and individuality http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/05/teaching-through-storytelling.html in modern society. Burfitt-Dons has said it was her way of ‘saving lives and alleviating suffering of the heartbroken and humiliated’.
She designed the Cool to be Kind Campaign in 2000. She initiated a National Decency Campaign in 2002.http://www.eparenting.co.uk/parenting/nationaldecencycampaign.shtml The Grade Not Degrade campaign in 2006 . The New Scotsman quoted her as suggesting Celebrity Big Brother
was legitimising the growing trend of bullying behaviour in classrooms around the country. http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment.cfm?id=116102007 She was a speaker at the Conservative Women’s Organisation Forum http://www.conservativewomen.org.uk/article.asp?art_id=63 at the House of Commons
on cyber bullying claiming that today ‘children have to be as savvy as celebrities but without the pr support’. In response to the growing trend of internet abuse she designed the CyberKind Campaign http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/bid-to-make-people-nicer-on-the-net-1.931077 which was launched at the River Room, House of Lords
by Baroness Hayman and Lord Grocott on Remembrance Day
November 11 2009. Burfitt-Dons is founder of the UK Kindness Movement
and co-founder of Kindness Day UK
http://www.mydaily.co.uk/2010/11/12/kindness-day-uk-launches-13-november/http://www.responsesource.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=60351 in association with the World Kindness Movement
. She appeared on BBC Breakfast
on the first Kindness Day UK on 13th November 2010 alongside Kathy Lette
who claimed that English people were condescending and unfriendlyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70ymutgb1k0.
Since 2007 she began campaigning on global warming and has said that ‘climate change may be the ultimate issue that unites us all’.
In May 2009 she was invited to become a Fellow
of the Royal Society of Arts
in recognition of her work with children as well as to acknowledge her efforts as a campaigner and speaker on humanitarian and environmental issues.
. His experience of the subject had been recorded from 30,00 feet up. A pilot for 38 years he has taken account of the effects of climate change and the increase in the intensity of hurricane activity since his days flying for the New Zealand Air Force in the 1950s.
Burfitt-Dons is a founder director of the Global Warming Alliance which was set up in January 2006 to find solutions to the crisis. On the 2nd December 2008 she launched the Global Warming Hotspothttp://www.youtube.com/globalwarminghotspot channel on You Tube.http://www.globalwarminghotspot.blogspot.com
She is currently spearheading the Hot Women Campaign.http://www.hotwomencampaign.org
on the motion 'This house believes we’d be better off if women ruled the world’. As a Fellow-led initiative Burfitt-Dons set up the Royal Society of Arts
Women’s Speakers’ Network whose mission is to ‘raise women’s profile in society by greater involvement in public speaker’. She chaired the launch event at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
on November 9th 2010 in a public debate entitled ‘The Great Female Debate: Do Women Speak Too much or too little?’http://belsizeconservatives.yourcllr.com/2010/10/26/do-women-speak-too-much-or-too-little/.
issuehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6265127.stm.
In 1999, she criticised the treatment of an incident involving her daughter, Brooke, and Princess Beatrice of York
.
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
campaigner who is best known for her anti-bullying activism as the founder of the charity Act Against Bullying
Act Against Bullying
Act Against Bullying is a national charity in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2003 by Louise Burfitt-Dons. The charity's purpose is to help children who are bullied at school - by providing them with confidential advice - and to campaign to raise public awareness of the suffering of victims...
.
Early years and family
Louise Burfitt-Dons was born to Olive and Ian Byres in a small desert hospital at Magwa, in the BurganBurgan
Burgan may refer to:* Burgan Field, an oil field in Kuwait* Burgan Bank, a Kuwait-based bank* Kunzea ericoides, a plant also known as Burgan...
district just south of Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
City. Her father worked for Kuwait Oil Company and her mother ran a kindergarten. She had an elder brother Laurence (b. 1952). Burfitt-Dons was educated at the Anglo American School in Kuwait and later at the Hertfordshire and Essex High School
The Hertfordshire and Essex High School
The Hertfordshire and Essex High School and since 2004 named as The Hertfordshire & Essex High School and Science College, commonly referred as Herts and Essex is a secondary level comprehensive single-sex school and a mixed-sex sixth form on Warwick Road in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England...
and Ashford School
Ashford School
Ashford School is an independent school in East Hill, Ashford, Kent. For the vast majority of its 111 years of existence it has been a school purely for girls but in 2006 boys were admitted in some year groups and it is now a school for both sexes from the age of 3 to 18 offering boarding and day...
for Girls in Kent. Both her brother and mother committed suicide and her father died of cancer when she was 26.
From 1975 she rented an attic flat in Belgravia
Belgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
owned by Elspeth Rhys-Williams, a stoic human rights campaigner and daughter of Juliet Rhys-Williams
Juliet Rhys-Williams
Juliet Evangeline, Lady Rhys-Williams, DBE, DStJ née Glyn , was a British writer, and a Liberal Party politician who later joined the Conservative Party....
.
Burfitt-Dons has two daughters, Brooke (b. 1988), who graduated from University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
in 2010 and works as a radio host, singer and actress, and Arabella (b. 1992), who is a student at the University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
, by her pilot husband Donald Burfitt-Dons, a New Zealander of Danish extraction (Dons) who she met and married in London in 1982 while he was on an overseas basing with Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
. The couple lived in Australia between 1982 and 1993 where Louise worked as an actress and wrote plays for the Sydney stage. She co-starred in a dinner theatre show with Andrew Harwood
Andrew Harwood
Andrew Harwood was an Australian quiz show host, announcer and actor. He had a career that spanned over 40 years in the Australian entertainment industry.-Career:...
in 1988. She gave birth to both her children at the Portland Hospital
Portland Hospital
The Portland Hospital for Women and Children, usually referred to simply as the Portland Hospital, is a hospital in Great Portland Street, London...
and now they live in London. They lived in the South of France for some years before moving back to the UK. Both children attended the Lady Eleanor Holles School
Lady Eleanor Holles School
The Lady Eleanor Holles School is an independent school for girls in Hampton, London, England. The school was founded in 1711.-Admissions:...
.
Campaigning
Since setting up Act Against Bullying, Burfitt-Dons has been outspoken on the ill-effects of tribalismTribalism
The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but, due to the small size of tribes, it is always a relatively simple role structure, with few significant social distinctions between individuals....
in society as a speaker and writer. She has advocated that tribalism is on the increase and has been taking effect in all forms of modern society leading to social unrest. Feeling the need to express what the public were confiding in her she designed a range of campaigns to promote human dignity and individuality http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/05/teaching-through-storytelling.html in modern society. Burfitt-Dons has said it was her way of ‘saving lives and alleviating suffering of the heartbroken and humiliated’.
She designed the Cool to be Kind Campaign in 2000. She initiated a National Decency Campaign in 2002.http://www.eparenting.co.uk/parenting/nationaldecencycampaign.shtml The Grade Not Degrade campaign in 2006 . The New Scotsman quoted her as suggesting Celebrity Big Brother
Celebrity Big Brother
Celebrity Big Brother could refer to:*Any series of Celebrity Big Brother UK:** Celebrity Big Brother 2001 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2002 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2005 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2006 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2007...
was legitimising the growing trend of bullying behaviour in classrooms around the country. http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment.cfm?id=116102007 She was a speaker at the Conservative Women’s Organisation Forum http://www.conservativewomen.org.uk/article.asp?art_id=63 at the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
on cyber bullying claiming that today ‘children have to be as savvy as celebrities but without the pr support’. In response to the growing trend of internet abuse she designed the CyberKind Campaign http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/bid-to-make-people-nicer-on-the-net-1.931077 which was launched at the River Room, House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
by Baroness Hayman and Lord Grocott on Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth...
November 11 2009. Burfitt-Dons is founder of the UK Kindness Movement
UK Kindness Movement
UK Kindness Movement is a non-monetary, independent organisation promoting kindness campaigns, initiatives and resources. It also serves as a think tank on kindness research and is one of the representatives of the World Kindness Movement in the UK.-History:...
and co-founder of Kindness Day UK
Kindness Day UK
Kindness Day UK on 13 November every year, is a humanitarian, non-monetary organisation with the sole purpose of making kindness a greater part of everybody’s day to day life...
http://www.mydaily.co.uk/2010/11/12/kindness-day-uk-launches-13-november/http://www.responsesource.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=60351 in association with the World Kindness Movement
World Kindness Movement
The World Kindness Movementis a coalition of various kindness movements around the world. The movement was initially conceptualized in 1997 with the aim of bringing like minded kindness movements across the globe together, The current members of the movement are 20 kindness organisations with...
. She appeared on BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items...
on the first Kindness Day UK on 13th November 2010 alongside Kathy Lette
Kathy Lette
Kathy Lette is an Australian author who has written a number of bestselling books.Born in Sydney's southern suburbs, she first attracted attention in 1979 as the coauthor of Puberty Blues, a strongly autobiographical, proto-feminist teen novel about two 13-year-old southern suburbs girls...
who claimed that English people were condescending and unfriendlyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70ymutgb1k0.
Since 2007 she began campaigning on global warming and has said that ‘climate change may be the ultimate issue that unites us all’.
Awards
In 2006 she was nominated as an Angel Hero for the US My Hero project.http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=L_Burfitt_Dons_england_06_ulIn May 2009 she was invited to become a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
in recognition of her work with children as well as to acknowledge her efforts as a campaigner and speaker on humanitarian and environmental issues.
Global warming
Louise’s concern for global warming was fuelled by her husband's interest in the tropopauseTropopause
The tropopause is the atmospheric boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere.-Definition:Going upward from the surface, it is the point where air ceases to cool with height, and becomes almost completely dry...
. His experience of the subject had been recorded from 30,00 feet up. A pilot for 38 years he has taken account of the effects of climate change and the increase in the intensity of hurricane activity since his days flying for the New Zealand Air Force in the 1950s.
Burfitt-Dons is a founder director of the Global Warming Alliance which was set up in January 2006 to find solutions to the crisis. On the 2nd December 2008 she launched the Global Warming Hotspothttp://www.youtube.com/globalwarminghotspot channel on You Tube.http://www.globalwarminghotspot.blogspot.com
She is currently spearheading the Hot Women Campaign.http://www.hotwomencampaign.org
Speaking Career
Since she began her campaigning work, Burfitt-Dons has been an active motivational and inspirational speaker. She writes a blog Encouragement For Women http://encouragement-for-women.blogspot.com. In October 2009 she was part of the heated debate http://cambridgetab.co.uk/featured/currie-tikkad-off-2/ http://cambridgetab.co.uk/columnists/standing-up-for-sisterhood at the Cambridge Union on the side of Cosmopolitan Magazine Editor Louise Court against Edwina CurrieEdwina Currie
Edwina Jonesnée Cohen is a former British Member of Parliament. First elected as a Conservative Party MP in 1983, she was a Junior Health Minister for two years, before resigning in 1988 over the controversy over salmonella in eggs...
on the motion 'This house believes we’d be better off if women ruled the world’. As a Fellow-led initiative Burfitt-Dons set up the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
Women’s Speakers’ Network whose mission is to ‘raise women’s profile in society by greater involvement in public speaker’. She chaired the launch event at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the British engineering society based in central London, representing mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers...
on November 9th 2010 in a public debate entitled ‘The Great Female Debate: Do Women Speak Too much or too little?’http://belsizeconservatives.yourcllr.com/2010/10/26/do-women-speak-too-much-or-too-little/.
Controversy
Burfitt-Dons was criticised over her handling of her charity over the Celebrity Big BrotherCelebrity Big Brother
Celebrity Big Brother could refer to:*Any series of Celebrity Big Brother UK:** Celebrity Big Brother 2001 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2002 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2005 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2006 ** Celebrity Big Brother 2007...
issuehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6265127.stm.
In 1999, she criticised the treatment of an incident involving her daughter, Brooke, and Princess Beatrice of York
Princess Beatrice of York
Princess Beatrice of York is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York...
.
Publications and plays
- The Counsellor by Louise Byres, October 2000
- Painkillers by Louise Byres, June 2001
- Act Against Bullying by Louise Burfitt-Dons, August 2002
- A Christmas Riddle by Louise Byres, June 2000
- Valentine Card by Louise Byres, June 2001
- How to Catch A Man by Louise Byres, September 1991