EMERALD DREAMS BECOMING REALITY
A journey of five thousand miles begins with a single step. It’s a step that’s often perilous to take at the start of a voyage which is frequently thwarted at every turn. No one knows that better than Emerald Grace Davy who made the trek from Swansea to Sacramento – a journey of 5,156 miles, to be precise – to take part in this year’s Homeless World Cup tournament in the California state capital.
Born in Swansea, a family breakdown then saw her moving between London and Reading over a ten-year period punctuated by the death of her dearly loved grandmother and her mother’s remarriage.
"Her new husband was not kind to me at all,” she relates. “Then one day my mother took me to the bus stop, with a suitcase, and left me there, to make my way back to live with my father in Swansea. I was only fourteen and I well remember that feeling of sitting by the bus stop, with all my possessions, thinking ‘this is it. This is the biggest decision I’ll ever make’.
“My father did his absolute best, I love him very much, but he had suddenly been landed with a grieving, quite strange teenager.”
The ‘strangeness’ turned out to have a name – neurodivergence – but it’s a condition with which Emerald has only recently been diagnosed.
“Making that discovery was so liberating,” she enthuses. “I just kept asking, over and over, what’s wrong with me? If you’re a girl, you’ll always be sent to mental health services and told you’re anxious, depressed or just trouble. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to me and I went into care when I was 16 for about two years. From then, until very recently, I experienced extraordinary violence due to systemic failings, one after another.”
Though grateful for the love and support she’s received from certain quarters, “I’ve worked out my price tag. I’ve had over £1m spent on me – trying to indoctrinate me, keep me, but it’s been spent in hugely uninformed ways. That’s hurt me and ultimately led to me being kept in modern slavery.”
A spell in a prison hospital left her completely traumatised before she managed to return to her local hospital in Swansea, but respite was brief.
“They were looking to send me away again when a guy just turned up and said, ‘I’ll take her.’ No checks, no questions about how he was going to keep me safe, they just literally sent me home with this random man and it all blew up from there. It was horrendous, what he put me through. I was so scared and so hurt then one day I just thought, you know what, I fancy my chances. I had the clothes on my back, a wallet with my ID and a teddy bear and I ran.
“I escaped from a life in modern slavery – and nobody even knew that it had happened.”
Refuge came in the form of a hostel just outside London; a home run by a woman who had taken it upon herself to be the change she wanted to see and had created a loving home for people just like Emerald.
"I stayed with her for nine months and while I was there, I played football every week.
“I’ve been involved with Street Football Wales for about ten years. When I left care – it's just a black and white transition, one day you’re in care and the next day you’re not – I went into a hostel which had a football team. They took me on, everyone was very kind, then one day a guy came up to me and said, ‘You know, you could play for Wales.’
“I thought, who the hell is this guy and what’s he talking about? I confided in one of the staff that this weird man was telling me I could play for Wales and they said, ‘well yes you can’. I was floored!
“I remember once – when I was involved in modern slavery and nursing a stab wound in my belly – I turned up to Street Football Wales and just played football, just had a really lovely day. They fed me, and there was so much kindness and acceptance and positivity. At a time in my life where I was not a happy young woman, was not well, not safe, and I needed that little glimmer of hope, Street Football Wales absolutely gave that to me.”
So Emerald started to rebuild her life and found the confidence to apply for a place at university in London. As a care leaver, she benefited from a slightly assisted entrance – as low as 6% of care leavers go to university and there’s a push to increase that number.
“The university support was outstanding,” she enthuses. “When I went for the interview I remember thinking, ‘I don’t feel scared, I feel optimistic. I can do this.’ And I absolutely did do it!”
Emerald studied global health and social medicine, looking at global health from a systems perspective – what are the causes of the outcomes being seen and how can the interdisciplinary, international solutions be achieved. “To be honest, I think I might have cracked it!” she laughs.
Her goal was to graduate on time and, powering through, she succeeded. “That just shows the impact of care, violence and adversity. I was one of those 100% kids – my goals were always to get 100%, be a doctor, rule the world. Then, as a young adult, my goals were to finish on time – I just love that I still had goals, even after all that had happened.”
Life was still waiting in the wings to throw curve balls, however, and the challenges just kept coming, as she continues:
“Unfortunately, when you leave university that support which has kept you going disappears and I just bounced around. It was the first time in my entire life – other than when I was in modern slavery – that I had absolutely no support of any kind.
Emerald followed up leads for online courses, ran, swam, wrote and did everything she could to keep busy, but life just became too much and the demons in her head began to make their voices heard.
“Sadly, I experienced violence again and there’s a case ongoing in that respect.”
Football was to come to the rescue once more, however, when the opportunity arose for Emerald to volunteer for Homeless World Cup in Cardiff in 2019.
“It was the absolute week of my life. Team Egypt, who I was looking after, were beautiful young men and they stay in touch even now. I dream of travelling the world with Homeless World Cup. Dreams of travelling the world don’t reach the streets – but Homeless World Cup brings that dream to us.”
With her trademark tenacity, Emerald’s dreams for her working life are reaching fruition, too.
“I’m an entrepreneur now,” she announces. “I’ve got a business – though I’m metaphorically at day one with that for the next year, but day one is still a beautiful day! It’s in software development, creating apps – though I can barely use a phone, I don’t know how to code and don’t speak the language of the digital industry, but I know my idea is strong and that’s the road I want to be following, with 100% conviction.”
It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Emerald threw herself into every game played at the Hornet Stadium, over that scorching July week, with 100% conviction and pride. She even became a recipient of the prized Whistle of Hope after scoring her first goal, “perfectly struck to the back corner of the net!
“The referee said he saw how much it meant to me. I was playing defence, not striker, so I was genuinely shocked and chuffed. I’d dreamt of scoring a goal, the night before, so it was all really magical and special.
“Every time I walk on to the pitch, I puff my chest out. As soon as I come through the gates it’s like the special lines in Mario Kart that speed up your vehicle! Your heart just does a little leap as you enter the stadium – I want to sing, shout, smile and cry.
“Exercise releases all the chemicals that wake you up – and when you’re traumatised, being awake is scary, it reveals your emotions.
“Over the six weeks of training that we had before we arrived in Sacramento, before every single game I’d have a panic attack – but I’d do it away from the team. Then ‘Michael Sheen’ and ‘Robert Downey Jnr’ would walk me hand in hand to training – I know that sounds unbelievable but that’s what I experienced. I was so in my own world and I can still summon them now if I need to!”
Michael, Robert and the pride of pulling on the jersey with the dragon badge have seen Emerald through many a challenge of late.
“Any time I feel sad, lonely, low or depressed I can put on my national kit. I’ve made some great friends here who I can’t wait to swap shirts with.”
Suddenly Emerald’s face lights up as she hoots with laughter. “I’d always seen people swapping shirts and thought ‘eugh, that’s disgusting, why on earth would you want to put on clothing that someone else has sweated in’ and now I can’t wait to do it!”
Words: Isobel Irvine
Images: Dan Higginson