Freya Couzens Celebrates 5 Years as a Volunteer at Locate International
Five years ago I wrote a press release as an experiment. It ended up identifying someone who had been unidentified for 45 years.
Joining Locate International, I remember thinking I couldn’t quite believe I’d been accepted. I had no idea what it would become.
I joined as an investigator and then sent off my first press release as an experiment. It went to Ireland (as planned) and I didn’t really know what I was doing, but believe it or not, it worked.
It led to a breakthrough: a person who had been unidentified for 45 years was finally named. Answers for a family, dignity restored, progress where there had been none. That moment changed everything.
The truth is, somewhere along the way I realised something quite big: I had found my thing.
People talk about passion like it’s obvious - a racquet sport, a hobby, something you can neatly explain at a cocktail party in a sentence or two.
Mine, it turns out, is helping to investigate missing and unidentified person cases with a brilliant team of volunteers, running international targeted media campaigns, and occasionally discovering that something you tried on a hunch can help solve a mystery decades in the making.
Not the easiest hobby to summarise over drinks, admittedly, but it has changed my life.
My first thanks goes to Dave Grimstead for founding the charity and for the vision that started this journey. Without your original idea, none of this would have happened. My second thanks goes to my wonderful team today, because on the back of that one hopeful press release, Locate’s media team was born. To Roland and Faye, my right hand man and woman, to Alanis, Paul, Lloyd, and Scarlett, and to all those that have volunteered past and present. And to all the wonderful volunteers at Locate (a special shout out to Yvonne), including my fellow executives Dr Mark Greenhalgh and Beth Marriott.
I came in hoping to contribute. I stayed because I realised what is possible. Here’s to the next five!