Father of murdered Gloucester hairdresser receives OBE 

• Nick Gazzard came to sit down with ITV News West Country.

The father of a murder Gloucester hairdresser said "it's great" to be honoured, but there's still work to be done.

Nick Gazzard set up the Hollie Gazzard Trust after she was killed by her ex-boyfriend in 2014, and since then has dedicated his life's work to helping those affected by domestic abuse and stalking.

The 20-year-old was stabbed to death while working at a hair salon in Gloucester, just four days after she ended their relationship during which she suffered repeated violence at his hands.

Nick has been made an OBE in the New Year Honours, which was also in recognition of the work trustees, staff, volunteers and donors had given to the Hollie Gazzard Trust.

Sitting down with ITV News West Country, Nick said: “It's great to be nominated, and I was thinking this morning, I'm an ordinary guy from the Shire that's been nominated for this award, and so that's really, really pleasing.

“It is great for the whole team around me, not just those that work in the office, but supporters, donors, volunteers as an entity, but it also gives us a platform to springboard forward, you know, certainly in 2025.”

Nick doesn’t feel the issue has improved in the past decade.

He said: “I think the big change is that it's more in the public eye now, because going back 10 years, people did not talk about abuse or domestic abuse or stalking.

“Now it's more on people's lips, and they're talking about it because of the awareness raising that's been done. One of our aims was to really raise the awareness of these issues so that we get it into mainstream talk, because if you don't talk about it, you can't resolve these issues.

“So that's the number one aim of the trust really is to do that. So it has got better in that way, but there's still much more of it around now.

“Whether that's because more people are coming forward or because more is happening, can be either or both even.”

To deal with the problem, the trust created the Hollie Guard app, which uses several safeguarding features designed to help those in a threatening situation. It also delivers workshops and programmes in school.

“It can keep you safe," Nick added. "We know it saves lives because of the feedback that we've had, and there's lots of functionality in the app. 

“We're working with nine police forces now across the country on the paid for version, which is Hollie Guard Extra, which means your alerts will go to a professional police monitoring centre.”

Nick revealed the work he’s been doing since Hollie’s murder has helped with the grieving process. 

He said: “I didn't want Hollie just to be another statistic. I wanted it to be something which we could actually embrace.

“We can use a story to avoid other individuals, particularly young people, going through what Hollie went through.

“And when you get the feedback from individuals that tell you, ‘this has saved my life’, and ‘looking at Hollie's story has got my daughter out of this relationship’ - that's heartwarming, and I think that's cathartic in a way.”