THE SURVIVOR

CEO OF SURVIVORS MANCHESTER, DUNCAN CRAIG CAST ASIDE YEARS OF WORK IN THE ARTS TO BRING ATTENTION TO THE VERY REAL ISSUE OF MALE SEXUAL ABUSE AND RAPE. HE NOW DEVOTES HIS LIFE TO SUPPORTING SURVIVORS AND URGING OTHERS TO SPEAK UP ABOUT THEIR ABUSE.

Words: Paul Flynn

DUNCAN CRAIG

The Mancunian candidate breaking the silence on male sexual abuse

When you grow up in Manchester, you quickly get attuned to spotting local heroes. If you wander up and down Deansgate long enough on a Saturday you’re guaranteed a parochial star-spot: a Corrie actress at Kendals’ cosmetics counter or a stray member of Elbow sloping out of an afternoon ale session. It’s the way the city works. Entertainment is in its DNA.

It comes as some surprise, then, to hear the damascene moment for a new kind of Mancunian folk-hero came from rejecting his glittering entertainment career. Duncan Craig is no less personally arresting than the musicians, actors and footballers that preceded him. Potentially he’s a whole lot more useful. Through the charity he set up in 2009, Survivors Manchester, he’s tackling head-on a last societal taboo, incrementally changing the national dialogue on male sexual abuse. ‘I just want to have a grown up conversation about it,’ he says. As Charity leader, Mr Craig cajoles the Ministry of Justice, advises chiefs of police, attends Home Office initiatives, sits on committees and advises media, all the while taking private sessions with some of the 600 male sexual abuse survivors who’ve knocked on the charity’s door asking for help. He was chief advisor on the male rape storyline on Hollyoaks of John Paul McQueen. Duncan is a proper force of nature. But even those familiar with his whip-smart wit, rock-solid conviction and brilliant, clear-eyed agility for getting himself heard have been left a tiny bit gobsmacked by his turning into South Manchester’s Erin Brockovich, as scripted by Russell T Davies.