Christina Fox and the fairytale ending 

A chance meeting in a park brought Christina Fox to Big Local – but it was her background in youth work and her own unsettled childhood that made her the right fit to volunteer. 

While the 22-year-old Blackpool native was playing in the neighbourhood with her niece and nephews, she was spotted by Cy Karoonian, a youth worker for the area of Revoe – known as Revoelution. “We got chatting about how when I was a teenager, I was training to be a young leader and absolutely loved it,” Christina tells me, “but the youth club I was doing it with got closed down before I could finish.”

When you first meet Christina, you immediately see the qualities Cy must have recognised.

Cy saw her potential, she says, and asked her if she wanted to get back into it. “I’d always wanted to work with young children and teenagers, so I went for it and ended up getting the job straight away.”

When you first meet Christina, you immediately see the qualities Cy must have recognised. Her exuberance and upbeat outlook are a balm – and something of a surprise, given what she tells me about her difficult upbringing. But punk clothes and Gothic make-up render her instantly relatable to teenagers and give an edge to the rosy cheeks.

Despite her alternative appearance, Christina is as much a mainstream kid as any. In fact, she and her partner are planning a Harry Potter-themed wedding. “I’ve always been a fairytale kid,” she says. “I’ve loved anything that was magic.”

Christina plans on wearing a “rustic, old-style wedding dress like princesses you would see in films”. “But then for the evening I’m going to change into more of a slip-like dress that’s easy to move in. I don’t think a princess dress would be very easy to dance in.”

She does admit though, that she hasn’t actually read the books. It’s one of many contradictions – and surprises – that Christina pulls like a rabbit from a hat. Her own childhood, like Potter, was far from fairytale fodder, but she talks with an unwavering smile and fond recall.

I was just so happy to have a mum and dad again that I didn’t think, no, I knew would never leave me.”

Christina was born in Blackpool, one of six children in a “very nice family”. When she was six, Christina and her siblings were taken into foster care. “My mum needed more help than she’d admit, and they decided she wouldn’t be able to fix that. So we got taken to court.”

She remembers her foster carers as “the loveliest people ever”. To this day, she still calls them Nana and Grandad. “They had lots of other children, and we all went to the zoo and did nice things. I remember my nana shouting at me for scuffing my shoes. My grandad always did my hair before school.”

Three of the six children, including Christina, were put up for adoption, but three were deemed “too old”. Christina was chosen by a family in Leeds, and moved in with them when she was six. “I was just so happy to have a mum and dad again that I didn’t think, no, I knew would never leave me.”

As a teenager, she remained outspoken, standing up for victims of bullying, even though she was bullied herself.

She didn’t even mind that her adopted family got confused about her name. Christina was actually born Christine, but the social workers made an error and soon she was answering to both. Eventually, they gave her the choice. 

Christina was an outspoken, independent child who loved making new friends, and quickly settled into life in Leeds. She was always “the geekiest one in the class”, she says, a good student who loved asking questions and fell in love with science experiments. As a teenager, she remained outspoken, standing up for victims of bullying, even though she was bullied herself. “I remember I very much wanted to do my own thing, doing it my way, and always going against what my parents said.”

She’d kept in touch with her two younger siblings, but her older brother and sister had moved back in with their birth mum when they turned 16, so she wasn’t allowed any contact with them. But at 13, Christina’s mum decided that it would be good for Christina to regain contact with her older sister, because she’d had some children. (Christina may be forgiving, but she still refuses to speak to her birth mother.)

At college, Christina achieved a qualification in childcare and went on to do an apprenticeship. She worked in a nursery, and then senior care. But tensions grew with her adopted parents. “They always saw me as something I wasn’t, still an energetic child. But as I grew older I started to get a lot of anxiety, a lot of things went wrong, and they didn’t seem to understand any of that.”

And at 21, things took a darker turn. “I was babysitting for a very close friend of mine, and they’d just had a little girl. But the night after I babysat, the baby girl passed away.” Christina was disturbed, but her adopted parents didn’t understand why – they didn’t much like the family. Meanwhile, she was struggling to get back into work. “I started to be more independent and I decided that, if my parents didn’t like it, they could deal with that but I was doing what I wanted. And they didn’t really like it.”

The relationship wasn’t healthy, she says, so she “cut all ties”. “I decided that it was best to just move away, start over and get away from all problems … And my birth family all live in Blackpool, and I wanted to be close to them so it was the best place to choose.”

Christina was devastated. She’d been with her adopted family for 14 years. But she was also “relieved”. “Once I left the situation, it was like the pressure I felt was gone. I didn’t have to live up to all the standards.”

When she first drove into Blackpool, the city was exactly how she remembered it – bright, colourful, flags hanging over cobbled streets, a buzzing Promenade and a beach flooded with light from the tower and amusement park. “Blackpool’s still really busy, it’s got that bustle and hustle and the beach is always full.”

Everyone helps each other, everyone knows each other, everyone comes together.”

Revoe, sternly overlooked by Blackpool Tower, is one of the most deprived areas in Blackpool, a city which contains eight out of ten of the UK’s poorest neighbourhoods. Blackpool men also have one of the worst life expectancies in the UK; they now live on average 27 years less than those in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, according to a recent Lancet study. The rate of premature mortality, or death before life expectancy, is nearly twice that of the richest local authorities. But Revoe itself is also a warm, vibrant complex of narrow lanes and local dogs. Christina is as passionate as any of the volunteers. “If you’d come through it, you’d think it was literally just a rundown street, but actually there’s a big heart of community that you wouldn’t see unless you lived here – everyone helps each other, everyone knows each other, everyone comes together.”

You wouldn’t think it, but they love doing a picking session – they love going out with the sticks and the bin liners and showing off that they can clean up their own streets.”

Christina speaks to local young people about what they’d like to see at the hub, runs a juniors’ night with crafts, a football club, and takes kids out volunteering in the community. “You wouldn’t think it, but they love doing a picking session – they love going out with the sticks and the bin liners and showing off that they can clean up their own streets.”

She lives with her partner, as well as a Staffy-Jack Russell cross named Buster. They plan on surprising the guests at their wedding, with a Harry Potter-themed reception, with trinkets from the films on each table – like Harry’s iconic round glasses. 

I’m surprised that Christina admits she “wasn’t really into Harry Potter” before she met him. “But the very second night we met, we sat chatting and the film was on the TV. It turned out it was one of my partner’s favourite things and he made me sit through the whole thing. Then for Christmas I bought him a box set of all eight movies and every night he made me watch a new one until I knew them all off by heart. I ended up getting obsessed with it. I probably know more about it than him!

“I think he likes the magic and mystery of it – he didn’t have the best of childhoods. So it was his escape as a kid to get away from everything. I love the magic in it, too.”