Get Off The Bench Podcast

After suffering the terrible loss of two children, Alannah McGregor has worked tirelessly over the past 19 years to raise awareness of suicide prevention and to de-stigmatise what was once considered a taboo subject.

Alannah worked with other communities to create a campaign in central Victoria, promoting suicide prevention strategies. From this, the Suicide Prevention and Awareness Network (SPAN) was formed.

Alannah helped establish Safetalk suicide prevention workshops with community groups, while also mentoring funeral directors, health agencies and bereaved families - using her personal experience to help educate others.

In November 2021, Alannah was the winner of the inaugural Fred Awards, an initiative by The Fred Hollows Foundation to recognise the ‘humanitarian of the year’.

Socials:

Website: spancv.org.au

FB: SPAN Suicide Prevention and Awareness Network 

Mentions:

Dougy Centre

Bendigo Advertiser

Jim Stynes

Tobin Brothers

Fred Hollows Foundation

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George Siegal began his career in front of the camera as a newscaster, sportscaster, and weathercaster. His work took him from San Antonio Texas, to Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. In addition to work in front of the camera, George was a feature reporter and producer.

In 2001 he formed J.E.L. Productions, a video production company that produces commercials, infomercials, television programs and documentary films. The company also created their own original programming, which included a Texas Travel Program and a building and remodelling show.

George is most proud of his latest venture, forming the documentary film company Move the World Films, Inc. He wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary films ‘The Last House Standing’ which explores the fact that most people think catastrophic destruction will never happen to them, and ‘License to Parent’, which looks at how parenting is the most important job in the world, and how anybody can do it regardless of how qualified they are.

Socials:

Website: movetheworldfilms.org

Website: thelasthousestanding.org

Website: licensetoparentmovie.com

FB: Move The World Films, Inc.  @movetheworldfilms

FB: The Last House Standing @thelasthousestanding

Insta: Move The World Films

LinkedIn: George Siegal

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Scott Harris comes from a family of established, highly-successful individuals. At a very young age, Scott convinced his parents to send him to a military boarding school in Wisconsin he learned to fly at the age of 12.

At the age of 17, he enlisted in the army, where he developed a passion for skydiving, and he soon won the National Collegiate Skydiving Championships. A terrible skydiving accident left with him with a shattered femur, broken tibia, three broken ribs, facial stitches, and concussion, but he was back in the air 3 months later.

Scott earned Commercial, Instrument, and Certified Flight Instructor ratings, and would eventually run a parachute school. 

Years later, he met his 2nd wife, who connected him to the world of photography which became his profession. Over the years, Scott has built a successful property inspection business, and has become known as an expert in infrared thermography.

Scott is also the author of the book ‘Leap Forward’, a public speaker and provides training programs for the corporate sector to help managers and entrepreneurs achieve their goals and improve their performance.

You may also remember the infamous photographer that parachuted (uninvited) into Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding at Michael Jackson’s ranch - yep, that was Scott.

Socials:

Website: https://www.scottkharris.com/

Facebook: Scott K Harris @Scottspeaks1957

You Tube: Scott Harris

YouTube (Skydiving is a metaphor) 

Leap Forward (book)

Leap Forward Audiobook download

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Shabnam Ighani was born in the North of Iran, of Bahá’i  faith and with a wonderful childhood, she believed in the equality of men and women and the emphasis on girls education.

She was 12 years old when the Islamic Revolution happened in 1979 and the Islamic government took over the country. It was a memorable moment in her life as she remembers she was in secondary school and wearing a nice pink shirt with short grey skirt uniform that changed overnight in to a long black dress and head cover referred to as a “Manto”. 

Subjected to discrimination, bullying and harassment for being non Muslim, all Bahá’i people with a government job, qualified doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers and other professions lost their jobs.

At the age of 18, she married an over protective and controlling man who slowly made her miserable to where her confidence and self-esteem hit their lowest point and she became physically and mentally sick. She could not make any decision for herself and was subjected to emotional and psychological abuse for many years, leaving Shab with the conclusion that she had no choice but to escape to a free country. She counts herself lucky that Australia gave her that refuge. 

Her book titled - ‘Fighting for A Future, Trapped Behind the Border’ tells her life story. 

Shab attained her master’s degree in nursing specialising in Nursing Management and Clinical Nurse studies, and today works as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

Shab has a YouTube channel, predominantly in Persian, with more than 3,000 subscribers. Her aim is to help other people who are doing it tough in life and who are looking for answers and a direction.

Socials:

Website: https://www.shabnamighani.com/

LinedIn: Shabnam (Shab) Ighani 

FB:  Fighting For A Future: Trapped Behind The Border @shabnamighaniauthor 

Insta: Shabnam Ighani  @shab_ighani 

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Bronwyn Manley hails from NSW where the local environment caused endless allergies, which hampered her desire to grow her own food. Finally her move to regional Victoria gave wings to her dreams.

Starting out in their suburban back yard, Bon and her partner, Dave created a beautiful garden oasis that yielded enough produce for Bon and Dave, but also enough to share with others. Dave’s passion for gardening was sparked by time spent in the garden with his Grandfather, and this passion ignited a fire in Bon, and together they focused solely on growing fruit and vegetables.  

Bon soon became interested in growing flowers because of the benefits of companion planting flowers and vegetables.  Bon fell in love when her first zinnia started flowering and then fell deeper in love when she noticed how the bees and other insects were attracted to it. In an instant, Bon started allocating more space for flowers.

Having a background in hospitality, Bon started working at the local Tinamba Hotel, which led to discussions with the owners and the Head Chef about microherbs and edible flowers.  A discussion that continued to play on Bon’s mind.

Bon’s son started at local primary school and the family fundraised for the school with the kids growing flowers and microherbs.  

A few years later Bon and her family moved to Seaton and started working on a new farm with a billion and one dreams of what they wanted to do with it. One idea was growing veggie boxes, but disappointment set in as that idea wasn’t viable, and the first few years on the farm were really hard.

A few restaurants wanted Bon and Dave to keep growing veggies for them, but Bon’s real passion was trying create dried sprinkle blends. When the first big lockdown came, they made the decision to turn the edible flower part into a dry farm, and haven’t looked back, with the sprinkles now being distributed Australia wide.

Socials:

Website: http://boninthegarden.com.au/ (Coming soon!)

FB: Bronwyn Manley 

Insta: Bon In The Garden @boninthegarden 

LinkedIn: Bronwyn Manley

Mentions:

Tinamba Hotel https://tinambahotel.com.au/

Diggers Club https://www.diggers.com.au/

Startup Gippsland  https://startupgippsland.com.au/

Postcode Hives https://www.postcodehives.com.au/

Hugh Charles https://www.hughcharles.com.au/

Pete Collings (Architect)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/petecollingsarchitect/?originalSubdomain=au

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Lily Bergqvist, otherwise known as ‘Lily B - Artist’ became a household name in 2021 at the age of 14, when she auditioned for The Voice Australia, singing the legendary song ‘Candle In The Wind’. She went on to join Team Jess, with the highly acclaimed Jessica Mauboy, and then into the next round.

Since Lily first performed on stage at the age of 6, singing “Over the rainbow”, she has loved performance and theatre.  

Her favourite musical theatre productions are Les Miserable, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hanson and Beetlejuice.  

Outside of music and performing, Lily enjoys all things creative including drawing, painting, creating art pieces and drama.  She has joined a number of junior musical theatre productions, where she enjoys taking on other characters and most of all having fun and making new friends.  

Lily also likes to perform voice impressions of movie characters and keeps others entertained with her recital of movie lines.  She has recently been studying Shakespearean insults and thinks it is pretty cool. 

Lily lives life by the motto, “Hakuna Matata” (no worries) – and recently said “You are not going to be here forever so make the most of it”.

Socials:

Insta: lilyb.artist - Lily B (Lily Bergqvist)

FB: Lily B  @lilyb.artist (Musician/Band) 

See Lily’s Voice audition here

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Jason Sotiris is the founder of the award winning charity, ‘Supertee’ which provides superhero costumes for sick kids to wear in hospital.

Beginning as a tradie, a devastating turn of events with his daughter Angela, made Jason decide to pack up the tools and make kids’ dreams come true.

Jason’s daughter Angela was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2013, raising Jason to absolutely ‘useless’ when a tangle of wires and tubes left him unable to change her clothes without difficulty and discomfort for Angela. In 2018 Jason launched Supertees.

‘Supertees’ fasten with plastic buttons to bypass wires and tubes, and can safely be worn in scanning machines. The innovative design provides an easier way for parents and hospital staff to change, access and bypass medical lines, without impacting the child’s dignity.

Over the past 3 years, 7,000 costumes have been given to sick Australian kids with more than 8,000 still to be delivered.

Socials:

Website: https://www.supertee.org.au/

FB: Supertee @theSuperteeChartity

Insta: the_supertee_project @Supertee

LinkedIn: Jason Sotiris

Mentions:

The Living Room (Channel 10) 

Royal Children’s Hospital

Life is beautiful (Movie) - Roberto Benigni

‘Man in the arena’ (poem) - Theodore Roosevelt

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Kate Gale grew up in Sale, Gippsland in a very loving family. She had three dreams in life 1. To be a hairdresser 2.To get married to the man of her dreams 3. To become a mum. She nailed all three dreams by the time she turned 24, however being diagnosed with breast cancer was not in her life plan.

She wrote her first book, ‘The Breast Is Yet To Come’ while going through breast cancer treatment in 2012 and has recently released her second book, ‘Thanks For The Mammaries’ in 2020.

‘Thanks for the Mammaries’ is an honest recount of her journey with cancer. After being diagnosed at the young age of twenty-seven with breast cancer, she fought a hard, uphill battle, stared it in the eye, and won. She may have won the cancer battle, but along the way, picked up a little thing called anxiety.

Five years later, as life was getting back to “normal’’, tragedy struck her young family again when her husband was diagnosed with renal cancer. What followed was the biggest curveball that Kate had been handed to date when roles were reversed, and she was sitting on the other side of a cancer diagnosis. It opened her eyes to life, what was important, who was important, and which direction she wanted to go in. It also forced Kate to own up to the fact she hadn’t dealt with what she had been through and she needed to take control of her anxiety and learn how to live with it. 

Having seen both sides of the disease, from two different perspectives, Kate knew she had to break down the barriers that surrounded cancer. Her positive, inspiring, and honest attitude towards her battles are not only refreshing to some, but something that will leave you wondering what is important to you. Kate shows people how dreaming big, giving back, and having a never-give-up kind of attitude can turn a negative into a positive whilst continuing to smile.

Kate now lives in Ballarat with her husband Bob and two teenage daughters Bree and Gemma. She hung up the hairdressing scissors five years ago and is now funnily enough working as a Practice Manager in an Allied Health practice. Who would have thought she’d end up working in the health sector?!  She continues to raise funds for cancer research whilst speaking and raising awareness about cancer, fighting anxiety, and how she found her new normal.

Socials:

Website: https://www.kategaleauthor.com/

FB: Kate Gale - Author

Insta: Kate Gale - Author  @kategale_author 

LinkedIn: Kate Gale 

Mentions:

John Farnham

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A troubled childhood and high school dropout at 15, Glenn Dawson always looked for something fulfilling to do with his life and find meaning in the lack lustre careers he'd had in his journey (his words!). 

Eventually, Glenn took the plunge and moved with his wife to Lombok (Indonesia), and bought a run-down bar and restaurant on a beach. He then proceeded to build a new hotel on the site in 2006, and in 2009 he built a second hotel in the backpacker famous Gili Islands.

While the hotel business conjures up images of a life of exotic adventures, it also brought to light the devastation of single use plastics that were washing up on the beaches daily.

Glenn had a lightbulb moment that cascaded into endless research about straws and the devastating effects they had on the planet. The project idea was abandoned and allocated to the back blocks of his mind as Glenn longed for a world that would or could have the plastic straw banned one day.

By 2019, the hotels were sold and Glenn and his wife were living back in The Gurdies, Victoria permanently. Glenn’s hope picked up as he heard the governments of Australia talking about bans on plastic straws, and decided to act on his idea. 

Applying his passion, and gaining entry into the prestigious Startup Gippsland incubator program, Glenn’s kickstarted his project, and successfully made it through to the final.

The Only Straw, is a completely biodegradable, compostable and zero waste drinking straw, and Glenn is excited about how it will evolve into in the future, and hopes other green products will follow.

Socials:

Website: The Only Straw  https://theonlystraw.com.au/

Insta: The Only Straw @the.only.straw 

LinkedIn: Glenn Dawson 

FB: The Only Straw  @jointhestrevolution

Twitter: @TheOnlyStraw

Mentions:

Startup Gippsland

Bass Coast Shire

Latrobe Valley Authority

Jim Rohn

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Eimear McNelis is the owner of Red Dirt Road Creative. She has been a Media Journalist, Photographer and Marketing Specialist for the last 21 years, and has worked in media roles, corporate roles and freelance roles in the UK, Ireland and Australia for medium to large scale companies. 

She has written copy for many businesses and organisations in the areas of education, philanthropy, travel, health and wellness and horticulture. 

As a result of beginning and writing her lifestyle blog “Red Dirt Road Blog”, she has had the chance to work on some amazing writing and media projects, and has been able to connect with many in the horticultural industry and undertake professional development in Horticulture.

Eimear has written regular magazine features for Gippsland Country Life Magazine, and has traveled to exciting emerging and prominent horticultural gardens throughout Gippsland, Victoria and Melbourne, as well as Ireland and the UK. 

Eimear hosts workshops in cooking, gardening and blogging, and has spent many hours volunteering at her local community garden.

She is currently enjoying her home based life with her family, enjoying the new challenge of homeschooling, while also indulging in more creative writing and in the planning stages of writing her first book. 

She lives close to Melbourne, in the Gippsland Strzelecki Ranges with her family where they grow yummy food in the glorious red volcanic soil.

Socials:

Website: Red Dirt Road Life  https://www.reddirtroad.life/

FB: Eimear McNelis

Insta: Eimear McNelis @red.dirt.road.life 

Twitter: Eimear McNelis @RedDirtBlog

LinkedIn: Eimear McNelis 

Mentions:

Schitt’s Creek

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