Under a Pink Sky

A MOTHER’S TRUE STORY OF LOVE, LOSS, THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS & THE FIGHT TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURES IN THE DIGITAL AGE.

On 11 February 2023, 16-year-old Brianna Ghey left home to meet her friend in a park local to her home in Warrington, Cheshire. Her mother, Esther, was relieved to see her go – a positive step after a difficult and increasingly isolated few years. What Esther didn’t know that day was that Brianna was being lured to the park where she would be tragically murdered.

There was at once an international outpouring of anguish and outrage for a young life brutally snatched away and a mother’s worst nightmare come true. Amidst global displays of support, the usually shy and private Esther began to reflect on how she could channel her own personal grief into campaigning to help others and to create a lasting legacy for her child.

Esther Ghey is a campaigner for social media reform and is the founder of Peace and Mind UK, a service dedicated to improving mental health for young people and their families through the promotion of mindfulness in schools. She has been interviewed across the national media, including a high-profile Newsnight interview with Laura Kuenssberg, taken her campaign to the House of Commons and become an ambassador for the Mindfulness in Schools Project. She is now at the center of the debate around banning phones in schools and driving better online safety for children and young people. Esther was named The Independent’s Most Influential Woman of 2024, leading a cast of fifty politicians, campaigners, businesswoman, athletes and celebrities who have all played a prominent part in British life, as well as being listed among GQs Heroes of 2024. Under a Pink Sky is her first book.