I was given the opportunity to develop and as of today maintaining the Lace & Blades website, a platform designed to transform the lived experience of sexual assault into a movement for legal reform. Built for a survivor who navigated the complexities of the system first-hand, the site serves as both a resource hub for trauma recovery and a central directory for public advocacy and systemic information. Here you can read the behind the scenes and process of the development from start to finish as well as beyond the process of developing the website for a client. You can see the website at https://www.laceandblades.co.uk/.

Background

In January 2025, the client experienced a life-altering event when she was raped by her then-partner. That moment became a defining line — reshaping how she understood safety, justice, housing, trauma, systems, silence, and survival. It was the point at which her private experience collided with wider public failure.

Throughout 2025, she began documenting her days, recording the abuse and coercive control she endured and reflecting on her experiences. What began as pain, memory, and survival notes evolved into Lace & Blades: A Survivor's Story — a book written to name what abuse does, how coercive control operates, how danger escalates, and how difficult leaving can be. This stage was rooted in survivor truth.

As the book moved toward publication, a broader issue became impossible to ignore: the housing policy gap facing women who are employed yet at high risk of harm. From this, Georgia's Law was born — a safeguarding-led housing reform proposal designed for high-risk victims, particularly working women who fall between existing support systems. It was built on a clear reality: income does not stop violence, employment does not reduce perpetrator risk, and safety should never depend on whether a victim fits neatly into a council form.

On 10 April 2026, the Lace & Blades website went live. Initially conceived as a place to gather resources, thoughts, support links, and information connected to her story, it quickly became something more significant — a web hub for signposting, survivor awareness, legal information, support resources, Georgia's Law updates, and public education.

This blog documents the development journey of that website, from its earliest stages in December 2025 through to its live launch — capturing the decisions, challenges, and purpose behind building a platform in service of survivor advocacy.

The current website as of 12/07/2026

December 2025

On the 19th of December 2025, the company I work for, Sapiens, where at the time working as a Junior Business Analyst, arranged a night out at Wetherspoons nearby in Cardiff Bay for everyone in the building.

It was lovely, as all walks of life from the building came out — business analysts, cleaners, accountants, receptionists, etc — all out to celebrate the somewhat almost end of the year.

The EU Support Team Lead at Sapiens mentioned to me that there was someone in the group looking at developing a website. I was all for it, but I was wondering how I'd prove I could do it. I know I can develop websites, but I didn't have any "proof". Typical me overthinking, sounds like I was going to go into a job interview and not a good idea with some beers down me! 😂 I learned this from all the jobs I applied for when I left university — even with personal projects hosted on GitHub which anyone can view. Funny how, fresh out of uni, we're expected to already have experience or a live website for everyone to see? Anyway, rant prematurely finished! 😂 That's for another day (yes, I'm looking at you, CORE — your loss and my gain🤘), as a Formula 1 driver once famously said: "You gotta be either blind or stupid not to see me."

Anyway, on a cold December night outside Wetherspoons, we got talking, figuring out on the fly what the founder of Lace & Blades needed from her website. Initially she was going to use Linktree and link up her social media pages — I did choke on my cigarette for a slight second, hopefully she didn't notice! Now I know why the EU Support Team Lead suggested me to her. She was also looking into paying a company to develop her website, which would have cost a bomb and taken forever. So I straight up said yes, without blinking an eyelid, not thinking about whether I'd ever be overwhelmed by what I was getting myself into. When she asked what pay I'd be happy with, I said no — I don't want to be paid. Get me a beer here and there, but for something this important, I'd develop Lace & Blades without a single payment.

January 2026

Once I'd recovered from a few late nights out and a somewhat thick head, with the planning done it was now time to begin development on Lace & Blades. I needed to be efficient, as it wouldn't be long before I'd need to show a proof of concept to build upon. The quickest way was to reuse the source code from my personal website, since fundamentally the groundwork was already there — connecting a Next.js frontend to a WordPress backend, with WordPress being perfect and easy to use for less tech-savvy individuals.

That was great — I knew the source code as I did it previously and figured out with what we used to use that was called Stack Overflow (Anyone remember that?), so it was the perfect way to go. Just hoped she'd be happy with everything! But that's all part of development, as I learned firsthand, and with my full-time job too, we adapt to suit the client.

February 2026

12th of February first live showing.