Maghaberry Prison

A few weeks ago Ian and I were invited to the launch of a program called ‘Life stories’ set up by our friend Lauren who works with the charity NIACRO working to reduce crime and it’s impact on communities. Lauren established a 6 week program to support short term prisoners in Maghagberry and during its development was looking for some inspiration to encourage prisoner engagement. Lauren was inspired by Stan and how despite his illness and disability he managed to create an amazing legacy through his photography raising thousands of pounds for cancer charities. Lauren discussed this with us and arranged to buy a selection of Stans work, to use as part of the Life Stories program where prisoners are asked to reflect on their lives and encouraged to make positive changes to support themselves, families and communities.
This has been an extremely difficult process for us as a family, Stan’s photographs now line the walls of ‘The Conroy’ Classroom in Maghagberry High Security Prison and his life story is used to inspire others to understand what they still have despite where they currently are. It’s taken a long time for us to figure out how to begin to process this but we felt that you would be interested to know how our Stan continues to inspire.