Our next AlumNouse interview is with Mary Deller (nee Januarius), press and media officer for a national drug education and prevention charity, Hope UK.
Mary attended York in the mid-80s, back when the university was around a third of its current size.
Mary: “I loved my time at York, and I loved being in York.”
Studying English Literature, Mary spoke about how much she enjoyed her course, particularly the opportunity to study Anglo-Saxon language and literature.
Mary: “I also loved delving into Middle English, which was the only compulsory paper, as this particular period was an area of expertise for the department.”
It was special to hear Mary reminisce about her time at York, sharing her plans to return to York to celebrate a forthcoming ‘big birthday’ in 2026 with her university friends. It was also a relief to hear that the news of the Long Boi statue has reached our alumni community.
Mary: “We shall have our photos taken next to Long Boi, outside Derwent College, which was our college.”
It’s easy to see how her time at York influenced her progression into the charity sector. During her three years there she joined the Anti-apartheid Society, and was also involved in supporting overseas students with English language conversation. Not surprisingly, she wanted to make the most of being in Yorkshire and as a member of the Outdoor Soc, she enjoyed many walking trips, visiting beautiful places like Haworth and Fountains Abbey.
Mary was interested in pursuing a career in journalism – whilst at York, she ‘dipped her toes into the waters of student journalism, contributing to a cultural life magazine.
After graduating from York in 1987, Mary spent a year at Cardiff University completing a postgraduate diploma in journalism. In what she described as a “very intensive” and “vocational course”, Mary focussed her efforts on magazine and periodical journalism, being most interested in research and writing features.
It was after completing this postgraduate diploma at Cardiff that Mary joined a small business magazine publishing company based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. And, within a few months of working at Leisure Management, Mary was developing her journalism skills, whilst getting opportunities to travel abroad for stories.
Mary: “There were great opportunities in terms of learning the craft: hands-on writing, news stories, feature stories, reporting from events, editing, commissioning.”
She added: “Within the first three months, much to the envy of my uni friends who were also starting jobs …, I was on a plane to Palm Springs.”
Staying in a “swanky, five-star hotel”, Mary was in Palm Springs to cover the World Water Park Association Conference, visiting waterparks, talking to practitioners, owners, and reporting on the current trends.
On another business trip, Mary travelled to Goa, India. Interested in the impact of tourism and overdevelopment on local communities, Mary wrote a story on the social and environmental impacts of this emerging sector.
Learning about and writing on anything and everything from museum exhibitions to swimming pool filtration processes, Mary explained that “as a journalist you have to be a bit of a generalist.
You have to research things you know nothing about and ‘pretend’ to be a bit of an expert. You have to really get under the issue by interviewing and talking to people – by understanding the basics then crafting a piece that makes sense to people who do know about the subject. I like that challenge.”
After five years in the business magazine world, Mary was ready to get stuck into something else.
Mary: “I’ve always been interested in working in the voluntary sector … I was keen to eventually get into humanitarian aid and development work, and there are a lot of big charities around so I was applying for jobs within communications.”
Mary joined World Vision UK, with a main part of her role producing the magazine for donors. After having her daughter, Mary continued to do freelance work for World Vision - writing annual reports to donors and sponsors - before deciding to get involved in youth work. She helped to run a youth group in her local church, and was a parent governor at her daughter’s school. Whilst doing voluntary youth work she signed up for a two-day training course for youth workers on drugs and young people – “It was something I felt I knew nothing about!” The course was run by Hope UK.
“At the end of the course, they told us about a training programme for people who were interested in becoming voluntary drug educators. It was a no brainer for me and I signed up!”
On completing the training in 2010 Mary started taking drug education sessions within her local community, in schools and youth groups.
In 2021 Hope UK offered Mary a part-time, paid role as press and media officer.
Mary: “That was great because I’ve never lost the love of researching and writing.”
She continued: “I’m curious. I’m basically very nosey - I like to get to know people; I think you have to have that instinct for journalism.”
The aim of Mary’s role is to raise the profile of the charity.
Mary: “I think we’re a charity that really punches above our weight. However, not that many people have heard of us.”
Hope UK is a 177-year-old, drug prevention charity with roots in the temperance movement in Victorian England; a movement designed to educate the population on the effects of alcohol – in an era when there was no legislation or regulation around production and supply, and where men, women and children, particularly in the growing industrial towns and cities were suffering the ill-effects of excessive alcohol consumption. Mary described to me the importance of giving children and young people accurate knowledge and information, and how this has the ability to change the trajectory of their lives.
Mary: “It’s a real privilege to have the opportunity to be involved in that work. To talk about it on the radio, to write stories - which I love doing, and to tell people about what we’re doing.”
“Our aim is to equip young people with the skills they are going to need to make healthy, and ideally drug-free, choices. It’s about giving them the knowledge and the life skills to make good choices for themselves.”
Hope UK delivers drug education to schools, parents, carers, teachers and youth workers to give a better understanding of drugs and their effects.
As press and media officer, Mary’s tasks are both reactive and proactive. And while she described the difficulties of showing impact and outcomes to funders as a prevention charity, Mary responds to news stories, and looks for ways to get news coverage.
During my interview with Mary her passion for charity and community work was abundantly clear, with the skills she’s developed throughout her journalism career proving invaluable to the organisations she works with.
I’d like to thank Mary Deller for getting involved in the AlumNouse series. To find out more about Hope UK, please visit their website: https://hopeuk.org
Want to get involved? Whether you are a current UoY student and want to write for AlumNOUSE, or you’re a York alum and want to share your story, please contact me via my email: grace.bannister@nouse.co.uk.
