This year, Islington Now has chosen to celebrate these Islington women in the wake of International Women’s Day last Friday.
Marina Easty
Marina Easty is a paediatric radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Day to day she conducts ultrasound scans, reports CT’s and MRI’s and completes examinations on children. Having been qualified as a Doctor since 1991, she has been full time at Great Ormond Street Hospital since 2007.
Marina said: “As a female doctor, I am proud to work in a health service surrounded by strong, hardworking women who give their best to colleagues and patients to succeed.”
Having women around her, she insisted, was incredibly important to her.
She said: “As one of three sisters and having three girls myself, I am constantly amazed at how astonishing women are. I am so lucky to have my girls, my sisters, and my female friends. They make me the person I am and the person who I will be.”
Baroness Casey read a moving report in the House of Lords on International Women’s Day last Friday, of the number of women who have been killed by men over the past ten years. The Femicide Census shows that in the UK a woman has been killed by a man on average, once every three days in the UK over a ten-year period. Of this report, Marina said: “We as women need to remember those women taken too young.”
Marina reflected on the current inequalities in pay between men and woman that still need to be addressed within the NHS. She said: “Women need to be encouraged to succeed despite wanting to have families, or older women who are going through menopause.”
Laura Schofield
Managing Islington’s The Pleasance Theatre has been Laura Schofield’s job since 2022. The Pleasance Theatre has been at the heart of the Edinburgh Fringe theatre and comedy since 1985, showcasing to a London audience its best comedy, drama, and entertainment. But Laura said: “There isn’t really an average day, one day I’m at a glitzy press night, or an upscale meeting with our board members somewhere posh, and the next day I’m running this amazing building from the 1800s in Islington. I’m often caught unblocking a toilet or fixing a leak in the ceiling. It’s a mixed bag, but that’s what I love about it.”
In her role, Laura feels that she has to give credit to the women before her who pioneered for equal gender representation in the arts in senior positions. She said: “There was a generation of women a bit older than myself who pushed things forward and I’ve benefitted massively from that. Very rarely now would I be the only woman in a room or a meeting.”
Bethany Anderson
Bethany Anderson, a Stroud Green resident, epitomises the essence of juggling multiple roles with grace. As co-chair of Friends of Finsbury Park, she represents the people who care deeply about Finsbury Park. Beyond her voluntary commitments, Bethany balances her professional career as a hair and makeup artist alongside being the project manager for Edible Landscapes London, a non-for-profit community education project, which she calls ‘a labour of love.’
In response to what her work means to her, she said: “I personally get a lot of fulfilment from that because I like being in nature. I absolutely love parks and countryside. I find it is incredibly beneficial for my well-being but also knowing that I can help other people who might be in various stages in their life or might have issues in their life. It feels nice knowing that you can help them.”
Her bustling household is shared with her husband, Alex, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, and a stepdaughter. Amidst the joyful madness, their home is further warmed by the presence of their loyal dog and four affectionate cats.
Bethany acknowledges the challenges of her balancing act, remarking: “It is a juggle, but I’m very lucky, I’ve got a very supportive husband and my children, they do really support all the different things that I want to do. And I think it’s important that they see that it’s not just men that have these goals and things they want to achieve. It’s also the women.”
She also imparts valuable lessons to her children. She says: “I am trying to teach them the importance of getting involved in their community and giving their time for free. And not always to link work and things you do with money, that sometimes you do stuff for your community that’s not paid, but you do it because it’s beneficial for you, selfishly, but also, it’s great to your community.”
Neha Nandedkar
Neha Nandedkar is a lighting designer and artist working in Islington. She works four days a week as a lighting designer in Finsbury Park and on weekends she focusses on her art. She said: “I start really early and work really late, but I try to do as much as I can in the time that I have.”
As a lighting designer, she works on temporary and permanent galleries’ lighting and facade and interior lighting for commercial and office spaces.
Neha said: “There are a lot of women doing lighting work. My boss is a woman and I feel proud to be working under her. It gives you a different kind of validation altogether.”
Art is Neha’s outlet, and she produces paintings and ceramics work, at The Islington Art’s Factory every Tuesday and Thursday. Her most recent series of paintings is focussed on her travels in Iceland.
She suggested being a woman and working in the arts has never been easy. There is always some kind of a friction you experience being a woman in competitive fields within the arts. Sometimes, it is hard to get your point across in a male dominated space.”
Neha is optimistic about the spaces the arts create are very transformative and adaptable.
She said: “There is a change happening to the position of women in the arts, it’s very slow but I’m optimistic that on the horizon somewhere there is change and things will look up for a lot of women in different professions in the arts.”
Lily Adu
Lily Adu is the Community Organiser at Mildmay Community Centre in Islington. Lily joined the centre last year, and she has organised several community-oriented events and gatherings like winter festivals and warm rooms in the winter. Her aim is to bring the community together. With a background in Social Sciences and Anthropology, Lily has always been interested in humankind and community. She realised that working at the community centre was an extension of social science.
Working at the Mildmay Community Centre is meaningful and important to Lily in many ways. Elaborating on that, she said: “I like serving the community and helping others – and that’s what I am doing here. I aim to be a proactive and a responsive citizen who people can rely on.”
Lily believes that having an opportunity to create a positive change gives her hope.
Reflecting on her life, Lily said, “I try to create meaningful changes for each of us to achieve – individually and collectively; however, big or small – and preserve the community. I am a strong woman that almost always overcomes adversity with a smile. My five children give me immense pride and fulfilment – and I am grateful for that.”
Sandy Dennys-McClure
Sandy Dennys-McClure has been Chair of the Almorah Road Community Centre in Canonbury since 2018. During the week, she spends her time freelancing for various international charities, but she devotes much of her free time to running the centre.
The Almorah underwent a £50,000 refurbishment on its garden after receiving a grant, it re-opened in October of 2023. Since then, Sandy has spent much of her time recruiting and meeting new groups that use the centre for various activities, including a kids’ karate class, a yoga class for adults and a community coffee morning.
On what drives her to do this work, Sandy says: “I have lived in the local area for 20 years. It gives me joy to see people using the centre as a community space and a place for people to meet and connect socially.
“The community centre is a place where people can come for free and make social connections, which is so important, especially in these difficult economic times.”
Reflecting on her position as a woman, she says: “I think it’s really important to have women visible in the community and in leadership roles, doing things as a role model for girls and young women.”
Mary Girma
Mary is one of the community outreach evangelists at Inspire Saint James, a diverse and united community that inspires London with the Good News of Jesus Christ, in Clerkenwell.
Her aim, along with others at Inspire, is to not only provide a beautiful space where people can come and meet with God, but also create a strong community where people can flourish.
Mary is currently responsible for organising English lessons every Sunday at 6pm, intended to help immigrants in the community who may struggle with their language skills. “It’s important to put these lessons on, as we have a diverse community here in Islington where around 60% of the population are immigrants,” she says. “It has been successful so far, and around 20 to 25 students have come in as volunteers to teach for free.”
However, Mary’s work in the community does not end there. “We also run a life skills session alongside another organisation where we help people get out of debt, and there are various other things that we do in the community.”
She added: “My key role involves going out into the parish area with a partner and letting people know that we are there to help; it is about building friendships, hearing people’s stories, and signposting them to one of the ministry areas where we can help them.”
Working in a church where around half of the staff are female, Mary feels safe, comfortable, and appreciated in her work environment. However, while she is out making visits she meets all kinds of characters. “When you knock on a door you never know who’s going to be on the other side, so each door comes with its own little bit of risk,” she says.
“It is both a blessing and a curse to be a woman in my role. It is good because I am slightly more approachable than a man would be. I may have more compassion and so people are more open; however, you are inevitably more vulnerable as a woman, and I am often misunderstood as well. There have been occasions where people will take my number and think I have other intentions.”
