Coffee Chats with Matt Collins

When Jay Del Ray was first diagnosed with breast cancer, chemotherapy was never going to be an option.

This brave and inspiring woman shares with Matt her journey with cancer and why she chose to have both her breasts removed.

Jay's story is a great reminder to always focus on being grateful and only seeing the great things in your life!

Through his show, Matt has chatted to many walks of life; celebrities, sports stars, world record holders, reality TV stars and so many more. But no one more remarkable than his own mother.

On this Mothers Day, Matt shares a great chat with his mum, Kathy Collins.

She discusses her childhood where she had to leave school in Year 9 to support the family, not seeing her own father for twenty years, and her broken marriage with Matt's father.

Both Matt and Kathy were mildly concerned about what would come out, but the end result was a wonderful, loving conversation.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums.

Your father is arguably the most influential person in your life. So it makes sense that we strive to be the best parent possible.

Darren Lewis has been a counsellor for nearly twenty years and through his work with Fathering Adventures, he empowers and engages fathers to forge powerful and healthy relationships with their children.

As a child, Darren's father figures were not ideal and he experienced alcoholism and domestic violence at an early age.

Listen to his chat with Matt and find out why he was chosen as the 2011 Qld Father of the year.

After five years in remission from hodgkin's lymphoma, Rhys Greedy realised his life was there to be lived. Every year since then he has climbed and walked some of the world's largest mountains and longest treks.

Rhys shares with Matt his journey including why he turned away those closest to him while he was receiving treatment for his cancer and why it's important to raise money and awareness for worthy causes while he attempts to conquer some of the world's largest natural wonders.

This Coffee Chats proudly supported by Monochrome Coffee Co.

Peter Hogg is the guy everyone calls a friend. Most people would never know the tragic loss Peter and his family have suffered. Peter and his lovely wife Belinda lost two babies in the space of just over a year.

In their chat, Peter shares with Matt this sad time in his life as well as a failed marriage to a woman a lot older as well as the very personal reasons for his strong support for the same sex marriage vote.

This episode is dedicated to previous Coffee Chats' guest, Elke Ahlrichs who past away on the day this episode was aired.

This episode is supoorted by monochrome Coffee Co.

Julie McDonald OAM was a passionate, hard working, emotional athlete and so it was the conversation she shared with Matt was no different.

Julie was the only female to win a swimming medal for Australia at the 1988 Olympics but her swimming career was marred with illness and controversy.

Julie talks about her emotional relationship wth her coach, Laurie Lawrence and what her passions are these days.

Justin Farina went to Afghanistan as an Army Infantry soldier. As a nineteen year old, he was excited for the opportunity. However on his return to his home country of Australia, Justin experience PTSD and became detached from the world he was so passionate about.

Just shares a coffee chat with Matt and talks about his time in Afghanistan and the dark times that followed once he returned home.

Sarah Baltus was only 19 when she found out she was pregnant, which in itself isn't all that newsworthy. However, Sarah's lovely little daugher, Lillith was very keen to enter the world and she was born 16 weeks premature. This month Lillith will celebrate her birthday. Matt invited Sarah to join him in the studio to discuss the last twelve months as a young mother and how she got through such a scary and tumultuous time.

Jodie Alexander was one of the popular girls at school. Sadly, this did more harm than good. She struggled with body issues and self worth for many years.

Add to this a childhood of sexual abuse and a relationship marred with domestic violence and you start to understand why Jodie has struggled with never feeling worthy.

Jodie opens up to Matt and she shares her emotional journey which took her to a dangerous light 38kgs and how she has turned it all around.