Jaime Thurston - BArts, Communication - Journalism, 2000

Growing up in Orange, NSW, Jaime studied Communications at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst and took on a role as a cadet journalist with the Central Western Daily before moving to London 20 years ago.

It was in the process of helping a woman fleeing domestic violence that the idea for her charity 52 Lives started to take shape.

“It began when I was helping a local woman who was starting with nothing,” Jaime explains.

“I collected things from my family and friends to help her start over. It had such a profound effect on her, and I realised that it wasn’t the things we were giving her that were helping the most, it was the fact that people cared about her.”

52 Lives aims to change someone's life every week of the year and is based on the simple premise that people are good. People from all over the world can nominate someone in need of kindness and every week, the charity chooses someone to help and shares their story.

Day-to-day, it’s Jaime’s role to read nominations and work with her assistant to shortlist the people they are considering helping.

“I also write our social media posts, respond to emails, liaise with companies who are considering helping us, and occasionally visit people we are helping to make videos for our supporters.

“I update our website and sometimes do interviews, write articles, or give talks, and on the more boring side of things, I do our accounts and HR stuff!

“My journalism background helps when it comes to conveying people’s stories in an engaging way, and in asking the right questions.

“The people we help have often been through such difficult times, and I want to do their stories justice, but it is also important to respect and protect the people we help.

“Making sure they are happy with everything we do is the most important thing to me. I don’t want them to ever feel exposed or vulnerable by having their stories shared publicly. Their wellbeing is more important than any story.”

Choose kindness

In 2015, Jaime was invited on UK TV show Surprise Surprise, which had filled the audience with people 52 Lives had helped. The morning after the show aired, the 52 Lives Facebook page had over 70,000 followers and Jaime’s phone had 100,000 notifications.

Shortly afterwards, Jaime’s work was recognised by a number of awards, including the British Prime Minister’s Point of Light Award and being named Clarin’s Dynamisante 2016 Woman of the Year.

The money from those awards went back into the charity, and realising another initiative called the School Kindness Program.

“The aim of this program is to empower kids and help them realise that the little choices they make every single day have the power to change people’s lives.

“People think you have to make grand gestures or do something big to make a difference, but you don’t. Doing something – doing anything – to help another human being is what changes the world.

“In the future I’d like to expand our School Kindness Project into more schools but beyond that, I don’t have any plans. I’m not a big planner!

“My advice to young Charles Sturt University graduates just starting out is don’t plan too much – I’ve changed jobs many times since finishing university and have ended up somewhere I never expected to be, and it’s better than anything I could have planned. Sometimes having less rigid plans leaves you more open to opportunities that arise.”

Jaime believes that in a world where too many decisions are made based on fear, kindness is key.

“I’m motivated by the emails, phone calls and social media messages I get from people who have read my book (Kindness: The Little Thing That Matters Most) or who come across stories of people we’ve helped. I love hearing that what we do has inspired people to be kinder.

“I firmly believe that kindness is one of the most powerful and life-changing tools we have. It has the power to improve our own wellbeing, change the lives of those around us, and strengthen our communities.

“Every day we all have so many little opportunities to choose kindness. If we all chose to be kinder – even to the people we don’t think deserve it – it would change our world.”