Daily Express Monday, September 2, 2019 17DX1STbleed. “I ran home to my mum cry-
ing. I thought I was strong enough
to deal with the bullies,” she said.
She was also pelted with eggs and
flour by a group of girls on her last
day of school.
In the video, the mother of two
began to cry when she saw a photo
of herself at secondary school. She
said the bullying started after other
pupils made fun of her height, call-
ing her “Penny long legs”.
Ms Lancaster was also picked on
because she wore her hair in a neat
bun for ballet classes – which other
pupils would mess up – as well as
slapping her on the back of thehead and calling her “spam head”.
In the video, Ms Lancaster reveals
she suffers from hyperhidrosis –
excessive sweating – which can
affect areas such as hands and feet.
She holds her hands up, saying:
“Just talking about the bullying, my
hands are dripping right now.”Diver Tom Daley, 25, and
Australian singer Peter Andre, 46,
have also shared their experiences.
Daley said after he returned from
the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “they
took the Mick out of what I was
wearing on the diving board, they
would throw stuff at me at lunch-time”. Andre added: “I was an out-
cast. These kids tied me up to a
fence and took turns throwing
stones at me trying to see who was
going to hit me in the head.
“They were laughing and calling
me names. It was horrific. I was
really scared, I was petrified.”
The Diana Award discovered
more than half of young people had
been bullied in their school lives
and nearly three-quarters witnessed
bullying behaviour at school.
Seventy-eight per cent of young
people bullied at school have been
made to feel anxious, 56 per cent
have not been able to sleep and 17
per cent have felt suicidal.
The study also found that two infive bullied victims now avoid social
media, 54 per cent of 11-16s missed
social events, 35 per cent missed
school and 20 per cent have moved
schools or are educated at home.
The research also found 40 per
cent feared returning to school and
nearly a quarter said their school
did not tackle bullying well.
Diana Award deputy CEO Alex
Holmes said: “School should be
safe and free from harmful bullying
behaviour.
“We’re urging everyone to get
behind our campaign by helping us
train Anti-Bullying Ambassadors in
every school.”OPINION: PAGE 12This was until I found and
spoke to other people in the
same boat, which inspired me
to look for campaigns to do
with anti-bullying.
“Then I found the Diana
Award and tried to get
Ambassadors in my school,
which was successful.”By Mark ReynoldsPetrified
TEARFUL Penny Lancaster has
told how she was attacked by
vicious school bullies until she bled.
The model and wife of rocker Sir
Rod Stewart spoke out as around 10
million children return to school
this week and The Diana Award
charity says nearly six in 10 young-
sters are targeted by bullies.
Ms Lancaster, 48, broke down in
a video for the charity, set up in
memory of the late Diana, Princess
of Wales, in which 25 celebrities
recalled childhood bullying.
In one of the nastiest attacks, Ms
Lancaster described how she was
followed home by two girls and a
boy, who rammed his bike into the
back of her legs, causing them to
Penny in tears
as she recalls
her torment by
school bullies
Penny was
mocked by
classmates
because of
her height
and
neatness‘Tough time’...AlfieALFIE MANN, 16, from Barking,
east London, was bullied
throughout primary and
secondary school.
“It was a tough time for me,
he said. “It put a strain on my
mental and physical health, yet
I put on a brave face and tried
to keep other people positive.‘I put on brave face, but I was suffering’
Bullied through school...Louisa‘I didn’t want to go in’
BULLIES made Louisa
Antoine, 16, anxious
and reluctant to go to
school.
Louisa, from Essex,
revealed: “I have been
bullied in primary
school and also in
secondary school, andit is really horrible. It is
not a nice experience to
go through and having
been bullied most of my
life, I developed anxiety.
“Because of that,
there are days I
wouldn’t want to go to
school.”