Anyway, The Lost Orphan: A Home For Mirela follows on from a Channel Five programme aired in 2011 titled The Lost Orphan: Mirela’s Story where the Sky Sports F1 pit-lane reporter went to Romania to track down a girl she had met a decade earlier while volunteering at a children’s institution during her university’s summer break. Mirela – then a three year old toddler – captured her heart, and Pinkham vowed to help her out in any way she could.
In 2011 Natalie returned to Romania armed only with a photo to find Mirela. It wasn’t easy, taking several days to track her down as she had been moved to a two-bedroom house with eleven other children. If that sounds bad, it gets worse: Mirela was found tied to a radiator, and thanks to years of neglect she was very disabled – barely able to walk and unable to speak as well as hitting herself repeatedly.
Natalie couldn’t take any more of this; distressed by Mirela’s health she knew that something had to change – and that was the home that Mirela, her siblings and other children lived in. Natalie took on the huge challenge of building a new home from the ground up. A Home For Mirela follows how Natalie raised £190,000 in two years.
While it would be easy for me to sit here and write about what happens in the programme, I think it’ll be better for you to watch it on Wednesday and see for yourself. I will say that it is incredibly moving, very inspiring and more than anything else, extremely humbling; I had no idea about the situation in a country that is the EU and a two-hour flight away from the UK.
Natalie’s determination and sheer grit really shines through in the film, and it has been incredible to see the finished product of many hours of fundraising and leaping through red tape while doing her normal job, working in the Formula One paddock – which came together to help her out; tyre company Pirelli donated £25k towards the cause and many-a-driver pitched in, offering one-in-a-lifetime prizes for raffles to help.
As for the evening itself, I was very lucky to be invited in the first place; only a small number of Natalie’s friends and colleagues from Sky were invited along. It was great to catch up with Pinky, and to be introduced to a number of new faces. Personal highlights include: Natalie’s husband Owain coming up to me and asking me if I’m “that guy who writes nice things about Natalie” (yes – here’s another piece to add to the collection), putting the world right with Will Buxton and catching up with Alice Powell and my good friend Jack Leslie.
It was slightly strange to be rubbing shoulders with the great and good of the Formula One and Sky worlds, but the main thing was that we were all united: Natalie did an incredible job with an incredible charity, and I look forward to seeing how Mirela gets on in the coming years.
Hope and Homes for Children is an international charity working to end institutional care for children globally. They are leading experts in closing children’s institutions and reforming child protection systems. Find out more by clicking here.
'The Lost Orphan: A Home For Mirela' aired on Channel 5 on Wednesday 5th March at 7pm. If you missed it, you can catch up on Demand Five here.
A huge thank you to Beth Maughan at Hope and Homes and to Natalie for the invitation - you're both superstars!
Images 1 & 3: © Tom Chambers/Popcorn. Image 2: © Beth Maugan/HHC.
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