Maybe This Helps Podcast
The Story Behind BillyChip | Meg Abernethy-Hope
Billy got on a Megabus in Bristol just after midnight on 22 March 2018, heading for the Thailand trip his big sister Meg had always dreamed of doing. Four days later, he died in a motorbike accident. He was 20.Before he left, Billy had an idea. If people won’t give cash to someone sleeping rough, give them a token they can swap for food and drink instead. Meg and her dad Jon built it. Today BillyChip is in 458+ outlets across the UK and has passed 50,000 redemptions.But we didn’t start with Billy. We started with Meg: the lifelong chatterbox who’s just come off a 31-hour live radio interview for a Guinness World Record attempt, running on caffeine tablets and zero filter.In this episode:• Growing up 17 months apart: the wind-ups, the washing up, and forever being “Billy’s sister”• The last phone call she didn’t return, and why that ended up setting her free from guilt• The night the call came, and the list of people she had to tell• A festival instead of a funeral: a 20ft willow Viking ship, a flaming arrow, 1,000 people and a surprise set from Professor Green• How a “no” from the Charity Commission shaped BillyChip into something bigger• Quitting their jobs on a Thursday, and national lockdown the following Monday• The Bank of BillyChip, and the trial launching in Bath this winter• The chip people keep in their pocket as a reminder that they’re loved━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━GET INVOLVED WITH BILLYCHIP https://www.billychip.com Businesses: the Bank of BillyChip. £100 a month = 50 chips handed out by outreach teams to people who need them.☕ Cafés and shops: sign up as an outlet on the website. CEO Sleep Out, 19 November. Come and sleep out with Meg and the team.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━00:00 Episode trailer00:40 Welcome to Maybe This Helps01:56 Meet Meg and her radio endurance challenge06:49 Growing up with Billy18:39 Billy’s travels and their sibling bond23:43 Last conversations and coping with grief29:02 Losing Billy42:49 A festival instead of a funeral50:17 How BillyChip began55:22 Getting BillyChip off the ground58:56 Taking the leap — then lockdown hit1:01:09 BillyChip’s impact today1:02:27 The Bank of BillyChip: how businesses can help1:08:40 More than a token: the reminder that you’re loved1:14:30 How to support BillyChip━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━LISTEN TO MAYBE THIS HELPS Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kwUtMJrZ4hQyIh17WcAUX Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/maybe-this-helps-podcast/id1829087661▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC76cwcLFfBoLQFoU83dWaUwFOLLOW THE PODCAST Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maybethishelpspod/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maybethishelpspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579895290057Hosted by Josh Galea and Rhys Young. Ordinary people, real stories, recorded in Bristol.#MaybeThisHelps #BillyChip #Grief
