Mina Smallman’s life has not been an easy one but she could always find hope somewhere. The first female archdeacon from an ethnic minority background she was brought up, she says, in “poverty and chaos”. But as a young single parent she went back to school and became a teacher, looking for sparks of potential in even the most unpromising children.

She met her husband Chris, and had a wonderfully happy family life with her three daughters until one day when everything changed. Two of her adult daughters had been celebrating a birthday together but never came home. The police did not go to look for them so their friends and family did – only to find they had been killed. Mina says, for the first time, she felt robbed of hope.

The case was horrifying enough but then Mina discovered that, afterwards, police officers who were supposed to be protecting the crime scene had taken and shared selfies with her daughters’ bodies. The shocking behaviour made headlines across the country.

Yet, rather than retreat into grief or rage, Mina decided to take action, giving talks to police and becoming an activist campaigning against violence against women. In time she found she had forgiven the man who murdered her daughters but says she cannot forgive the police until they change. She tells Helen Pidd about her life, hopes and where she finds her strength.

• A Better Tomorrow: Life Lessons in Hope & Strength by Mina Smallman is out now

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