About SurvivorsUK#
SurvivorsUK was founded in 1986 by Martin Dockrell and Richie McMullen, starting as a helpline, and took charitable status in 1989. It opened its services to non-binary people in 2016. Its aim is that every boy, man and non-binary person in the UK can get support after sexual violence, whenever it happened. It works with people from age 13, through a national online helpline, individual and group counselling, emotional support through the justice system, support for friends and family, and training for professionals. It says it never turns away someone who could not get help anywhere else.
The helpline, and staying anonymous#
The National Male and Non-Binary Survivors Helpline is written first. Webchat, text and WhatsApp run every day from midday to 8pm, for up to 45 minutes a day; the phone line is open on weekday late mornings, for up to 25 minutes; and email gets a reply by the next working day. It is for men, boys, trans and non-binary people, and for those close to them.
You can stay anonymous. The team cannot see your number or IP address, and records only a first name, if you give one, with brief notes. The page is frank about the limits: a WhatsApp number could identify you, and an email address may contain your full name, so it suggests withholding your number and using an address without your name in it. Each page has a Leave website button, and a safe browsing page explains how to hide your visits.
Services, and where they are#
- UK-wide: the helpline, group work, and a national database of trained counsellors and services elsewhere. An Advice Hub offers short remote appointments on housing, work, benefits and education, aimed at people outside London.
- London only: individual counselling, independent sexual violence advisers (ISVAs) from age 13, who are independent of the police, and a caseworker service of up to three months. SurvivorsUK says it limits these to London to keep waiting lists down. For counselling elsewhere in England and Wales it points to partner charities.
- Clinics: a remote sexual health clinic with an NHS trust, where you do not have to give your real name, and a free civil law clinic about compensation claims, run with a law firm that it says it does not recommend over others.
Referral forms on the Ways we can help page let you refer yourself, or let an ISVA or caseworker refer you.
A new name, and the details that give you away#
SurvivorsUK publishes nothing on changing a name. Its helpline advice is a good test for anyone who does: the things that identify you are often the small ones, like a phone number, an email address or a username. If you change your name to put distance between you and the past, those details may still carry the old one. You can change just your first name, or just your surname, and our page on that explains how; the guide to online accounts covers updating email, social media and shopping accounts. For a national helpline with phone hours on set weekdays, see Safeline.
This page describes what SurvivorsUK publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. SurvivorsUK has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
