Brilliant Resilient Club Podcast

This is the final episode in the very first season of the Brilliant Resilient Club - I'm not saying I have saved the best until last but Emmanuelle Navarri's story is certainly awe-inspiring.

The TV producer and mum of three was diagnosed with a type of cancer called soft tissue sarcoma in her foot and ankle five years ago. She narrowly escaped losing a limb - and her life. 

Emmanuelle says the harder the challenges in her life, the more she threw herself into physical activity -  and that her love of sport helped her regain both her physical and mental strength.

She was always keen runner but then trained to be a triathlete in her 40s, going on to compete at European level and in September competed for a Team GB in Spain!

Listen to how dealing with her diagnosis gave her the resilience to achieve her goals.

For years she thought she couldn't run - now Alison Jones has run every day for nearly three and a half years. 'Streaking' is the technical term for running every day and Alison began her running streak on her 49th birthday aiming to complete a thousand days in a row. 

She's now exceeed that goal and doesn't intend to stop. Alison fits this in between running her business 'Practical Inspiration Publishing', hosting the 'Extraordinary Business Book Club, being head judge  of the Business Book Awards, raising money for the National Literacy Trust from her running streak AND being a mum.

Over the course of the 1,000 days, Alison also acquired a puppy, who now runs with her, been through  lockdowns,  home-schooling, and two house moves, but has always managed to carve out the time for at least a daily run.

She says running has kept her sane and her energy and spirits up through the craziness of the pandemic and beyond. And although she can't go on mad cap adventures around the world, she sees her runs as micro adventures discovering the landscape around her.

Listen to this warm and engaging conversation with Alison who's got some great insights into how to get going on achieving your own daily endorphine rush.

Mark Rogerson is someone who is resilient through and through.

He suddenly lost his sight just after he turned 30 - a life changing diagnosis that led to him grieving the life he once had.

Mark has adapted though and started running after he lost his sight - to raise money for the charity that suported him - the Royal National Institute Of Blind People (RNIB).

Since then he has ran seven marathons - he’s just completed the London one for the fourth time and has also ran marathons in Chicago , Berlin & New York.

Now, he’s aiming to be one of the first runners with sight loss to complete all six major world marathons in partnership with a guide runner.  

So far Mark has raised £25,000  for the RNIB - but he wants to raise more - listen to how he plans to do so!

OK so it's been some time since the last episode of the Brilliant Resilient Club - I've been recuperating from a couple of operations but now thankfully on the mend. And the conversations I've had with my guests on this very podcast about how to cope during tough times really helped !

 This episode with Louise Stewart has hopefully worth the wait.

Louise is a  former BBC political correspondent who’s now moved into communications. 

She’s shown a fair bit of resilience in recent years having faced both career and health crises. 

At the start of the pandemic, like many Louise suddenly lost her job and was struggling to even get responses from her many applications despite her experience. That’s a challenge enough but this came after Louise was diagnosed with bi-lateral breast cancer - and had to have a rare double breast operation. 

Happily, she’s now celebrating 5 years of being cancer free and is thriving in her career. She is also an ambassador for Cancer Research UK and  this month also being Breast Cancer Awareness month - what better time to talk to her about how she got herself  through her  tough times. 

Now I said this podcast wouldn't all be about elite athletes - but actually this episode is!

Saying that I think everyone will find what Leigh has to say interesting and relevant whether you are a high level sports person or someone like me who certainly is not.

Leigh cycled into the record books in 2018 to become the fastest person to ride across Europe. His journey took him from the west coast of Portugal to the edge of Siberia. He worked with a team of scientists who helped him innovate new techniques in endurance cycling. And as a result he broke the previous world record by a just little over eight days.

 That wasn't his only physical achievement. He also cycled around the world on his own, taking 7 years to travel through 51 countries all while living in £5 a day! 

These physical feats started his journey of personal transformation. Leigh says he's always had strong legs to escape a troubled mind. Having suffered from  depression in his mid 20s, he now campaigns for better awareness on mental health issues by drawing on his own experiences and is also an ambassador for the MQ Transforming Mental Health charity.

Leigh is a great storyteller, fun, engaging and uplifting. I hope you enjoy listening to our chat as much as I did interviewing him.

Gill Castle wants to show life can still be lived to the full after a traumatic birth - and she has shown just that. She suffered such rare and irreparable injuries when her son was born that she now has to wear a stoma which is an opening on the tummy that allows waste to leave the body. 

In this podcast Gill shares how she struggled to cope with a new stoma bag, a newborn baby, post-traumatic stress, post-natal depression and having to medically retire from the job she loved as a police officer. 

She told me the experience ruined her life but then also transformed her life for the better. Find out what prompted her to feel that she was too young to give up on life and how taking on tough physical challenges helped her rebuild.

Her most recent feat was to go cold water swimming in a bikini throughout the winter in the North Sea to raise awareness of stomas and birth trauma. She now plans to be the first person to swim the English Channel wearing a stoma and is raising money for the Birth Trauma Association, Colostomy UK and the Jacobs Well Appeal - which sends medical supplies, including stoma products, to developing countries .

She exudes positivity, high energy and an amazing zest for adventure. I’m sure you’ll feel uplifted after you listen to our conversation!

This is the debut episode of the Brilliant Resilient Club Podcast! 

And we kick off with an appropriately brilliant guest. Ed Accura overcame his lifelong fear of water to learn to swim at the age 53. He was held back by myths about black people and swimming. 

Ed documented his swimming journey in his first film Blacks Can’t Swim and in his sequel, explores the sport’s prejudice, stereotyping and cultural exclusion through the eyes of young people. 

These are timely discussions with Alice Dearing being Britain’s first black female swimmer at these Olympics. A cause for celebration but also a reminder that unless these barriers to swimming are removed, the sport will not be fully representative.

Ed illuminates these issues with humour and great insight. His story shows how his resilience has not only helped him overcome his own fears but also challenge the very misconceptions that held him back.

The Brilliant Resilient Club is a podcast dedicated to people who push past their physical comfort zone to gain mental resilience. Host Bhavani Vadde speaks to some amazing individuals who’re dealing with some big challenges - trauma, loss, illness - but rather than be defeated, challenged themselves something physical and as a result now feel better than ever. She came up with the idea when she took up up cold water swimming after having to stop work as a TV reporter during the pandemic because of an auto-immune condition. And despite hating exercise all her life, this helped her not only cope but thrive during some difficult times. In this podcast, she explores why and how other people take to the physical to deal with what life throws up.