Kerrie grew up with alcoholic parents and began her own intense but successful struggle with alcoholism and mental health when she became an instant alcoholic after her first drink at fifteen. At eighteen, she joined Alcoholics Anonymous and has remained clean and sober since that day forty years ago.

For thirty years, Kerrie has worked and volunteered in the business and community sector, helping those struggling with life issues find hope.

She has a private practice as a trauma and addictions coach/counsellor and mentor, building connections. She has also worked with many young people in crisis at different schools on the Sunshine Coast.

Four years ago, Kerrie founded “Stories of HOPE Australia”, a platform that runs monthly events bringing HOPE to the community. She has just released the second book in her “Stories of HOPE Australia” series ‘Resilient People, Remarkable Stories’. She has also created “Stories of HOPE Worldwide”, an online platform sharing stories of HOPE worldwide.

Biography

Kerrie Atherton,, Founder of Stories of HOPE Australia/Worldwide and EMPOWER Life Solutions, is a Keynote Speaker, Author, Mental Health First Aid Training Presenter, Event Host, and Trauma and Addictions Recovery Counsellor.

In everything she does, her passion is to help prevent suicide and hopelessness and to bring connection and HOPE to people in times of uncertainty in a rapidly changing world.

Social Media

https://m.facebook.com/StoriesofHOPEAustralia

Stories of Hope Australia: https://storiesofhope.com.au

Stories of Hope Australia | Restoring Lives Is Our Priority

https://empowerlifesolutions.com.au/stories-of-hope/

Stories of Hope Australia Books - Stories of HOPE

https://au.linkedin.com/in/kerrieatherton-099259187

Contact Kerrie

[email protected]

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

Fran Garton’s story is about how she overcame severe fibromyalgia which was undiagnosed for many years. She describes the long pain-filled path through the medical system while she tried to maintain her work and family life until she finally found someone who knew what was wrong.

She was told ‘You are a plant with no soil. You're literally just pouring the water in and it's just coming out the bottom of the pot, because there's no soil in there, nothing is being absorbed and you have so much inflammation throughout your body, that your body can't do anything with what you're giving it, even if you give it good food.’

After learning how to heal her body, her emotional and trauma issues and manage the occasional fibromyalgia flare-ups she now helps others. ‘I say to everybody, it takes time.’

‘You have to heal yourself. Until you heal yourself and deal with all of that you can't move forward, you're holding on to something in the past. You can't change the past, why don't you deal with the effects that it had on you so that you can move forward in your life?’

Biography

Fran Garton, #1 bestselling author, speaker, Body-Positive Personal Trainer, Pain Reduction Coach and Fibromyalgia Warrior, teaches people to live pain-free. Her passion is advocating for inclusive movement practices, body acceptance, stress reduction and learning to love movement.

She enjoys volunteering with donkeys, playing with kittens, watercolour painting, cross-stitching and having dance parties.

Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/frangartonpaincoach/

https://www.facebook.com/fran.garton

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLgxbhYO43_1B6y77ysx8wQ

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fran-garton-4976a048/

Contact:

[email protected]

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

Bishoy Tadros was born in Egypt. At the age of three the family immigrated to the US when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. He grew up in Long Island, NY where he received treatment for ten years. On his thirteenth birthday, Bishoy underwent brain surgery and remains cancer-free.

Bishoy shares his passion for health and fitness. He is an Iron Man and a six-time marathoner and has led charitable campaigns for the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society raising over $100,000 since 2017.

In 2019, Bishoy published his memoir, Break Barriers, to give readers a tool to channel the mindset to overcome obstacles whether they be personal, professional, or on the playing field.

He has also created the Mile 40 podcast where other people tell their stories.

‘Don't underestimate the power of that first step, although it's the hardest, it is undoubtedly, the most important step. It might take you longer than someone else but once you accept the fact that you are where you're meant to be… it'll take you a very long way.’

Biography

Bishoy holds an undergraduate degree in Accounting from SUNY Geneseo and an MBA from Fordham University with dual concentrations in Management and Finance.

Navigating the professional world at the height of financial crisis, Bishoy started his career at J.P. Morgan where he held various titles at the organization across the Investment Bank and Asset Management. He was a member of J.P. Morgan’s 2017 Met Club and recognized for his work as a leader within the sales organization. In a career shift that has been deemed notoriously challenging, Bishoy made the leap from finance to tech in 2019 when he became an Account Executive at Salesforce.

Social Media

@bishoy_tadros

Contact

[email protected]

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Barb spent her childhood in New Hampshire then went to Boston University on a full athletic scholarship majoring in Elementary, Special, and Physical Education.

She married in 2001 and had two children. After the terrible pain of losing her daughter Molly in 2016, her husband was ill, and Barb was suffering from brain tumours, she fell into a deep, dark place. She shares that harrowing journey and her long slow climb out of that place and how Jack’s birth when she was fifty-seven brought her to a blog and a podcast and the first steps in making sense of her life and using it to help others.

Biography

I returned to New Hampshire after nine years in the Boston area and worked as a schoolteacher, sports coach, personal trainer, camp director, event manager and race timer.

I continue to teach elementary school, coach CrossFit athletes, serve on a school board and workout regularly.

Oh, and I am raising a daughter and a son! I currently live with my daughter Gracie who is twenty-one, my twenty-three month old son Jack and their father Kenny.

Business name: A Thousand Tiny Steps

Contact

https://athousandtinysteps.com/

[email protected]

Social Media

https://mollybfoundation.org/

https://www.facebook.com/barb.higgins.96

https://www.instagram.com/barb_444/

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Adam begins his story in the Solomon Islands where he grew up. At seven, he was traumatised by psychological abuse from a teacher which instilled a very deep fear of rejection. This resulted in not being able to display any abilities or skills and becoming introverted and an unhappy underachiever at work. Eventually he had a breakdown at a conference but met someone who loved his business idea and offered help which was the catalyst to make the changes he needed. He described tackling his fear of rejection and jumped into networking. He realised he needed to be responsible for his own life, shift from a self-created victim mentality and re-write his own story.

Since making the shift, he is more action orientated in his business, but his whole life has improved by facing his challenges head on.

Biography

I am passionate about values-based culture in business and believe that values alignment not only promotes good business culture; but also promotes positive changes in people’s wellbeing long term.

I am famous for my ability to take complex ideas and present them as analogies to simplify the learning process.

I help business owners with a service delivery process (IT service/tech delivery) to uncover their values directly from their purpose, vision, and mission.

My program shows them how to embed their values into every customer interaction so that their team radiates their true values to their customers.

This promotes a happy, purposeful, and values-aligned team that the owner can trust to make decisions and behave in line with their values. The result is team retention, customer retention and positive brand image to promote long-term growth, while the owner can focus on their vision for the company.

www.bizualize.com.au

[email protected]

Social Media

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalsh-bizualize/

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Mentioned in this episode:

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.

Susan’s story is a harrowing and detailed account of an intense period in her life involving the U.S. medical system. Susan grew up as the daughter of the only doctor in a rural western Kansas town. After being a caregiver for her husband and a breast cancer survivor she has seen health care from three different angles. This has led to a passion to help doctors form better connections in all their relationships creating more balance in their lives and better outcomes for their patients.

Biography

Susan Bloom, a horsewoman for over fifty years is the owner and founder of Connection and Synergy™ is a Master Equine Gestaltist and an Equine Assisted Playshop Facilitator. Connection and Synergy’s mission is to help doctors create stronger relationships with themselves, their families, and their patients. This will bring more balance to their lives and help relieve stress. By having the tools to combat stress we can all live healthier lives.

Contact

Business Name: Connection and Synergy

https://connectionandsynergy.com/

Social Media

https://www.facebook.com/ConnectionAndSynergy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbloom-connectionandsynergy/

https://www.instagram.com/connectionandsynergy/

[email protected]

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

The first part of Francois’ story is a gripping account of his life changing experience in the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. Losing friends there and elsewhere caused him to take the decision to accept his own mortality, live every day to the fullest, to inspire others to do the same and live their best life.

He advises seeking professional help when its required is one of the most powerful things you can do. But you don’t need others to keep validating your pain or to keep suffering. Everyone has pain and copes differently with learning how to navigate adversity, his way was to help others and write a book to share his extraordinary story.

Biography

I have been living a nomadic lifestyle for the past 7 years.

I hunted crocodiles in Papua New Guinea.

I am soon going to be dropped on a deserted island to survive for 7 days with nothing more than a knife.

François is a former commando-paratrooper, a husband, an adventurer, an entrepreneur, and a tsunami survivor. He is the author of ‘The Illusion of Time: 11 lessons how not to suck at life’. As a High-Performance Coach & speaker, he helps entrepreneurs, CEOs, and executives to show up in a way they’ve never done before to achieve greatness.

Contact

Business Name: Chasing Excellence LLC

https://www.francoisdeneuville.com

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/françois-de-neuville/

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Mentioned in this episode:

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.

Dinesh Palipana is an extraordinary human being. He was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland and is a doctor, lawyer, disability advocate, and researcher. Halfway through medical school, he was involved in a motor vehicle accident that caused a cervical spinal cord injury.

Biography

Dinesh has completed an Advanced Clerkship in Radiology at the Harvard University.

He works in the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital and is a senior lecturer at the Griffith University and adjunct research fellow at the Menzies Health Institute of Queensland.

Dinesh is a researcher in spinal cord injury. He is a doctor for the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby team. Dinesh is a senior advisor to the Disability Royal Commission. He is an ambassador to the Human Rights Commission’s Includeability program. He was a 2021 International Day of People with Disability ambassador. He is a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia. He is an advisory board member to HealthyLife.

Dinesh was the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2018. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019. He was the third Australian to be awarded a Henry Viscardi Achievement Award. He was the 2021 Griffith University Young Alumnus of the Year. Dinesh was the Queensland Australian of the Year for 2021. In 2022, Dinesh was listed as number 33 in the Courier Mail’s top 100 power list for Queensland’s most influential in health and wellbeing. His autobiography, Stronger, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2022.

Contact

[email protected]

Social Media

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dineshpalipana/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/dinesh.palipana/

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

This episode of Kintsugi Heroes was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

Joanne talks about her inspiring journey into becoming a true entrepreneur beginning with a conventional bank job after school as decided by her father, then an early marriage as was expected of her. She moved up through promotions in the banking and finance world that made her a role model for women, breaking the glass ceiling of that time as she developed and refined her skills. When she suffered the sudden loss of her husband in an accident and became a single mum, she began a solo business.

She describes a series of business successes and failures. She demonstrates her courage, resilience, and ability to pivot into new challenges that continue to the present day.

About our Guest:

Joanne helps professional women feel that their sacrifice has been worth it and avoid the situation of being invisible to key decision-makers. 

Her vision is to inspire a reawakening of belief in self to create a movement of purposeful female leaders.

Having owned over fifteen businesses in the last twenty years with a mixture of great success, she shares what she has learnt with a ‘No BS’ approach. Her journey has not been smooth, but it has undoubtedly been exhilarating, and she wants to share what she has learnt with others. 

Having launched her sixteenth business as she turned sixty, she is determined to shake up the university space with overseas Masters degrees like no other in Australia.

Contact:

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_AFoQ5xxZ8JwGDVxCStc7A,

FB: https://www.facebook.com/navig8Biz

I: https://www.instagram.com/navig8biz/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/navig8biz/?viewAsMember=true

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

Mentioned in this episode:

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

Ian was born in Hamilton, Canada, a poor working-class steel town. His childhood was extremely challenging as his mother’s partner was president of an outlaw motorcycle gang. He tells his story of the violence and criminality which traumatised him in his early years.

He describes how he survived and later thrived because of his placement with exceptional foster parents and his positive contact with several churches. This led him to have a deep and abiding Christian faith in his life.

Once he escaped his childhood home and went to university in Canada, then later in Australia, he began to heal. As well as his Church activities he is part of Mentoring Men Australia.

About our Guest:

Born in Canada, he moved to Australia in 1994, married a local, and they settled here in 2004, after returning to Canada for a spell so he could complete his first two degrees.

He is an avid ultramarathon runner and motorcyclist. In addition, he enjoys cooking, travel, and adventure, some planned but most not.

He is a father, speaker, life and Leadership Mentor and Church and Community Leader.

He is encouraging and equipping those who are good at being men to be good men. He wants to serve men and their families by creating safe spaces to talk through issues related to men and manhood, life and meaning. Also, to guide and mentor men in a life of discipleship. As well as to establish a Fresh Expression of Church with men and their families.

Contact:

FB: http://www.facebook.com/ianfj

I: https://www.instagram.com/ianfojo/

LI: https://au.linkedin.com/in/ianfj/

T: https://twitter.com/IanFoJo

*****

We hope that you enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes.

Please take care: if you have been triggered by listening to this episode we recommend you get in contact with someone who can help keep you safe and give you the support you need. This may be Lifeline, AA, a friend, a counsellor, or some other support group.

If you’d like to share your story on Kintsugi Heroes, please get in touch by contacting us via the website here - https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/contact

We hope you continue enjoying the heroes stories!

Warmly,

The Kintsugi Heroes team

YouTube || Facebook || Instagram || LinkedIn || Website

Theme Song: "Broken" by Colin Lillie

Mentioned in this episode:

Thank You For Listening

Follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, or share your own story at kintsugiheroes.com.au. Your story matters.

Support Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit, and every story we share is free for the people who need it. If this show has meant something to you, you can help us keep going. Visit kintsugiheroes.com.au and click donate. Every contribution helps us keep telling these stories, and it's tax-deductible.