Matthew McVarish is a Scottish actor, writer, activist and survivor of childhood sexual abuse. With an MA in acting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, he has appeared on Taggart, River City and starred daily on CBeebies as “Raymond” in “Me Too!” Last year, Matthew toured Scotland playing “Titus”, a ten-year-old boy attempting suicide, in a sensitive production aimed at encouraging healthy discussion of childhood depression in schools. He has most recently returned from the New York production of Love Song to Lavender Menace, a reprise of the 5* show from last year’s Edinburgh Festival, about Scotland’s first LGBT bookshop in 1987.

As a playwright, Matthew’s debut show, To Kill a Kelpie, also ran Off-Broadway then toured the USA, and is currently being translated for an upcoming production in Paris. Another of his plays, Remember You Are Beauty Full, was described by The Herald as “the best play in any theatre in the country this year!” His other works include Kind Stranger, starring Tom Urie, and The Child Made of Love about same-sex adoption, starring Andrew Agnew, Balamory’s PC Plum.

Matthew walked 10,000 miles, visiting every EU capital on foot, campaigning for the abolition of the statute of limitations on reporting child sexual abuse. His walk encouraged various governments to table motions in their parliament. In some countries, Matthew is now the first male survivor to have ever spoken publicly about having been sexually abused. He was granted an honorary doctorate and received the prestigious “Top Scot” award (previous “Top Scots” include JK Rowling and Andy Murray).

The Scottish Government commissioned Matthew to write a paper on his work. Entitled “The Quality of Silence”, it outlines the varied sociological, economic and cultural obstacles to reporting childhood sexual abuse faced by survivors in over forty different countries where he has worked. He has given lectures on his paper at the UN, Iceland, Serbia, Scotland’s Police College and given the Moira Jones Address at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Sexual Crimes Conference.

Now an official delegate of the United Nations in New York, he has chaired numerous global discussions on children’s rights for the UN and co-created the world’s first Global Survivor Forum with ECPAT international in Bangkok.

Originally a client of the Moira Anderson Foundation, Matthew is proud to be their International Ambassador.

His new book, The Truth That No One Tells Teenagers: Ten Facts Every Teen Victim Has the Right to Know, written for teen survivors on how to recover from abuse, was published in 2019 and is currently available on Amazon. He hopes, one day, all children will understand the actual truth that they are awesome.

Break The Silence have secured multiple copies of Matthew’s book to have available for our Counsellors to provide to our young Survivors to help them on their recovery journey.

If you wish a copy of Matthew’s book, it is available to download or to order on Amazon (Don’t forget to use Amazon Smile to make a charitable donation):