Louth woman and sexual abuse survivor launches support app to help others heal
A Louth woman who suffered over a decade of sexual abuse from her father has created an app to help other victims
A Louth mother of four has created her own app to help abuse survivors after suffering years of sexual abuse at the hands of her father.
The app was launched this month July 2026 and is offering a reaching hand to those across the country who are suffering with trauma and addiction.
From Ravanny, Co Louth, Claire Smith said that in January 2025 she made a choice not to hide anymore.
“Not to let the pain define me, but to let it guide me. I’ve walked through trauma. Through the kind of darkness that makes you question if the sun will ever rise again.
“Through addiction, loss, and moments where holding on felt impossible. But here’s what I know now, what I wish someone had told me then: We can’t always choose what happens to us, but we can choose what we do with it”.
Claire said that healing doesn’t begin in isolation. It begins with connection. With words that hold up a mirror, not a measure, that walk beside you, not ahead of you.
Claire’s app ‘Hold On’ was made to help survivors like herself deal with trauma.
“Hold On was born from that truth. From real pain. Real survival. Real purpose. Not as a fix. Not as a cure. But as a hand reaching out in the dark. A voice whispering: Hold on. We got you,” Claire said.
The ‘Hold On’ app shares real survivors stories, relatable videos, guidance from lived experiences, healing tools and more.
Claire was on the radio programme The Agenda recently and she said: “my dad received a nine year sentence. When you come from a place of feeling like you just need justice I thought that this was going to give me justice...to see him punished.
“But at the end of the day justice for me is an inside job. It’s doing the healing work for you.
“It has been a very long journey to get to where I am today and I am absolutely blessed that I have done the healing work and that’s where Hold On has happened for me because I seen myself in my early teenage years being in addiction between drink and drugs and then later ended up in relationships with people that were that too”.
Claire said that it has been an incredible journey to be where she is today.
Claire said on The Agenda that she was abused up until she was 15 years old and she doesn’t know when it started.
“I just thought it was normal. There were many others who abused me as well”.
Claire has also written a book called The Girl from The Shadow which is not yet published but tells her entire story.