Ladies in the Red: For the Broke & the Beautiful was created by Katie Edwards in March 2007, after she watched Midsomer Murders for the fourth Friday night in a row. Forty minutes into the programme she realised that she couldn't be the only bankrupt person out there pondering the redness of John Nettles' complexion instead of doing something exciting.

On that fateful Friday evening, it dawned on Katie that there could be a whole legion of women who were dealing with the fallout from bankruptcy, IVAs, debt and house repossession and who were in on their own trying to do something (that wouldn't cost any money!) that might take their mind off their mounting red letters/impending repossession/forthcoming bankruptcy hearing date.

Katie sprang into action and, for the rest of the evening and into the early hours of Saturday morning, she created Ladies in the Red, intended to be a supportive, informative community site for anyone coping with insolvency. No longer would Friday nights be spent alone and counting up coppers, instead they'd be spent with other Ladies in the Red who were counting their coppers! It was a beautiful moment.

At first the only people reading the site were Katie's mum and her Auntie Annie, but, gradually, as the weeks wore on she received more and more emails from people coping with insolvency and then one day she was asked to write an article for YOU magazine. Then the Ladies in the Red website became inundated with emails. Katie knew her Auntie Annie didn't have to the time to write all of these. Without spending any money on advertising or marketing, the Ladies in the Red community was growing and by now there were a few men and a Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Buster included too!

Today Katie divides her time between maintaining the website, working as a lecturer, writing articles about insolvency for magazines and pretending she's going to actually use her Davina McCall work-out DVD. She isn't.

 

Katie would like to thank John Nettles' ruddiness for spurring her into writing. She very much appreciates his, and his apparently terrible make-up artist's, input into the creation of Ladies in the Red-- John, it could never have happened without you.