Paula Talman experienced difficulties growing up in Ireland, where she struggled with her school work and was corrected and criticised to the point that she feared going to school. But voluntary work at her local hospital exposed her to an industry where she was able to thrive. With her natural Irish chattiness – the gift of the gab that comes from kissing the Blarney Stone – she began speaking to lonely patients who had suffered serious injuries.

Getting to know these patients, giving them a connection and allowing them to express their fears had a profound effect on their mental health and in turn helped them with their recovery. This fuelled a passion in Paula for engaging with people and helping them to get better, and she went on to study both paediatric and adult nursing.

As part of her studies, she delved deeper into the mental services available to children, finding that staff lacked the knowledge, the skills and the tools to offer effective support. Wanting to change this, she moved into education, working in the medical department of a school and teaching the PSHE curriculum.

In this role Paula explored the inadequacies of how children are taught about mental health and began devising her own methods of making it easier to understand. She moved away from words like ‘depression’ and ‘anxiety’, developing more suitable terminology and creating relatable characters that allow children to talk through scenarios.

This simplified curriculum was the basis of her company iSpace Wellbeing, which helps school to teach their pupils how to verbalise thoughts and feelings, and develop self-awareness from a young age.

Paula’s is a fascinating story and she spins a heart-warming yarn of her time spent on children’s wards and working with terminally ill patients. These stories, and her experience of caring for patients in a way that improved their mental health, serve to show us how we can take more time to make a connection with others and how it can help to improve their physical health.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and share it with your friends as this will help us in our mission to improve the mental fitness of society percent by percent.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

Sgt Aaron Quinonez didn’t have your average upbringing. Growing up in a remote part of America, where the growing of marijuana was prolific, he was regularly on the run from the law and was forced to live homeless as a teenager due to his father’s addiction issues.

Joining the Marines straight out of High School, he found the discipline that he had been searching for and passed through the Corps’ brutal training regime, specialising in communication as a forward observer. A tour in Iraq followed.

But in Aaron’s own words, “nothing prepares you for war, apart from war,” and little did he know his real battle would be fought in his mind. After eight years of service, he started getting panic attacks, and suffered from depression, and was diagnosed with PTSD. Medication only served to numb the pain and being forced to pay for his own medical bills left him homeless once more.

Angry and resentful, Aaron was on the verge of suicide when he found solace in the church. He created a process of healing through serving others and this has seen him turn his life around. He is now CEO of a multimillion-dollar business and has founded a non-profit organisation that serves to help other veterans. He received the 2016 Distinguished Service to Veterans Award and the 2018 Superior Award from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

In this remarkable episode of ‘Life Happens’ Aaron chats to our Marketing Director, James Gwinnett, exploring his troubled past and how he came up with a plan to overcome his anxiety and negative experiences by creating more positive ones. Aaron is also the award-winning author of Healing Thru Service, which takes his learnings and offers help to anyone in crisis.

A powerful advocate of the importance of speaking up about mental health, Aaron is living proof that no matter how low you feel, it is possible to lift yourself back up again.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and share it with your friends as this will help us in our mission to improve the mental fitness of society percent by percent.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

As a hyperactive kid growing up on the Isle of Mull, Ruari Fairbairns was misunderstood and branded mischievous and troublesome. Put through counselling from as young as six years old, he then attempted suicide twice in his early teens before finding drugs and alcohol. Fortunately, a sharp entrepreneurial brain saved him from further harm – as he set up multiple companies from the age of 15 onwards – but his toxic relationship with alcohol followed him to London’s binge drinking culture as he worked for 13 years as a broker.

Deciding to take a break, it was during an alcohol-free period that Ruari noticed how his life improved – from becoming fitter, healthier, happier, more productive, to being a better dad and husband, he transformed not just his physical health, but also his mental health.

It became Ruari’s mission to help others who had become disillusioned with alcohol to make the same changes and One Year No Beer was born, a now global platform with 100,000 members in over 130 countries.

In this energetic and honest episode of ‘Life Happens’, James Gwinnett, marketing director of 87%, explores with Ruari how he came to terms with the difficulties of his childhood, how we need to reassociate our relationship with alcohol and how to take on the challenge of taking a break from alcohol without losing something that we cherish as a natural human instinct … our social status.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please share it with your friends and subscribe to the 87% YouTube channel, as this will help us in our mission to improve the mental fitness of society percent by percent.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

In the early 2000s, Nicky Marshall was a successful businesswoman, a mother of four and a lover of adventure. From indoor skydiving to qualifying as a scuba diving instructor, adventure was a huge part of her life.

Transitioning from finance to wellness, in 2010 she embarked on another adventure; one of entrepreneurship. She started a wellness centre, complete with coffee shop for clients to learn about the different therapies on offer, but with this came the early mornings, late nights and stress of covering overheads. As can often happen, stress led to fatigue and a poor diet, which caused her blood pressure and cholesterol to rise significantly over a six-month period.

This ‘perfect storm’ of poor health led to suicidal thoughts and ultimately to Nicky’s body shutting down in the form of a debilitating stroke, which left her temporarily paralysed.

In this episode of ‘Life Happens’ we speak to Nicky about transitioning from being fiercely independent to struggling with negative thoughts that she would have to give up the life of adventure that she had so enjoyed, and the business, which despite causing her stress, was her dream. We chat about her decision to overcome these thoughts and how she found the motivation and strength to bounce back.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please subscribe to the 87% YouTube channel and share it with your friends as this will help us in our mission to improve the mental fitness of society percent by percent.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

Andrew Brush has experienced more than his fair share of life's ups and downs. A highly successful businessman, with a track record of developing organisations, he went about his professional career with an enthusiasm for enterprise and for investing in the people that worked with him and for him.

But his life changed when his wife was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, a degenerative brain disease caused by a faulty gene, for which there is no cure. The illness attacks the brain, affecting the person’s major functions over time.

Andrew’s story of becoming a full-time carer for his wife is one of great tragedy as he struggled with the transition, experiencing anger, resentment, and depression at the unfairness of his wife being slowly taken from him. But it is also an uplifting one as he began to live in the present moment, rather than fearing what the future had in store for him and his young son.

In this moving chat with our marketing and communications director, James Gwinnett, Andrew shares how he was affected by the diagnosis, how he learned to surrender to his family’s situation and how, with an injection of humour into tragic circumstances, his new book, The Cuckoo of Awareness, is a celebration of life.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please subscribe to the channel and share it with your friends as this will help us in our mission to improve the mental fitness of society percent by percent.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

A very special guest on this episode of ‘Life Happens’ because of his standing in the world of mental health, Ben Bidwell has been on a journey of self-discovery and is on a mission to help others understand who they truly are.

From a life in which he ‘once lived uninspired’, struggling with creativity and a sense of purpose, Ben has reinvented himself as a prominent mindset coach, writer, public speaker and vocal campaigner for the need to change the stigma about mental health.

In an open and honest conversation with our marketing director, James Gwinnett, Ben talks about overcoming the pressure to conform and seek acceptance in today’s society. He challenges us to ask ourselves whether there is more we could be doing to connect with our bodies, learning to listen to how we’re feeling and ultimately finding greater fulfilment.

Doing so allows us to move away from the idea of having to ‘do, do, do’ all the time, and find balance. Allowing what Ben calls ‘flow’ and surrendering rather than constantly feeling like we have to work things out, is a much lighter, more natural and less stressful way of being.

It is a powerful conversation that will encourage you to think about your ‘flow’ and how you can better connect with yourself and learn who you truly are.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please subscribe and share it with your friends as this will help us in our mission to improve the mental fitness of society percent by percent.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

In April 2021, NHS worker Rachel Williams delivered a powerful and moving TEDx Talk, courageously sharing her experience of mental health in the context of being a black woman.

In this episode of 'Life Happens' 87% marketing director James Gwinnett speaks to Rachel about her experiences and her belief that we all need to ... pause. We can’t operate at 100% all of the time, yet we impose unrealistic expectations on ourselves to do so. Yet, Rachel explains that giving everything you have, even if it’s not 100% of what you’re capable of, is all anyone can ever ask of you.

Rachel is taking the first step, starting the conversation and being brave in talking about mental health, so that others can do the same, especially within the black community, where more people suffer with mental health issues.

If you like the episode, please subscribe and share it with your friends to help them build mental fitness.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

When you’re performing aerobatics with the Red Arrows, there’s no room for error. Yet our latest guest on ‘Life Happens’ admits to failing over and over in his pursuit of a childhood dream to become a fighter pilot.

Dan Lowes knew from an early age that he wanted to fly with the RAF. A failed application at the age of 17 set him up to understand the concept of failure and he succeeded in his second application as a more rounded and savvier youngster. As he progressed through training, he continued to experience failure, but in his own words, “It’s not so much the failure that’s the issue. It’s how you learn, how you react and how you adapt.”

Passing his course as the pilot that his instructors would ‘most want to go to war with’, highlighting his dependability, he spent eight years on the frontline before joining the world-renowned Red Arrows as a display pilot.

Listen to the interview to get Dan’s take on high performance and how he brings what he has learned into everyday life. Performance and focus when it matters is key to being the best we can be but it is also crucial to be able to switch off from that focus to help deal with stress.

Most importantly, as someone who has operated at such elite levels, Dan has learned repeatedly that failure is not something to be feared. If we don’t let it knock us, it is something that can prepare us better and ultimately allow us to succeed.

If you like the episode, please rate it, review and share it and help others build mental fitness.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

Abby Johnston, Kat Cordiner and Charlotte Irving make up Team ExtraOARdinary, an extraordinary rowing crew that will embark on the huge challenge of rowing an ocean later this year.

Taking part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, they will depart from La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, and attempt to row 3,000 miles to English Harbour, Antigua, across the planet’s second largest ocean. Together, they hope to be the fastest all-female trio to complete the challenge, beating the current record of 49 days, 13 hours and 49 mins.

In the latest episode of ‘Life Happens’, our marketing director, James Gwinnett, caught up with Abby and Kat to find out what is driving them on this incredible journey.

Veterans of the ‘high seas’, Abby and Kat met whilst taking on the famous Round the World Clipper Race in 2017, spending 31 days together sailing across the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, life hasn’t been ‘plain sailing’ for Kat since then; she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in early 2019. She went into remission but, despite chances of recurrence of around 5%, was told in July 2020 that the cancer had returned, and has since undergone heart surgery.

Currently navigating treatment while continuing her training for the row, Kat’s strength – and the commitment of her crewmates – is an example to all of us of how to overcome setbacks.

If you like the episode, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and share it with your friends to help them build mental fitness.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.

Ollie Phillips’ CV makes for pretty impressive reading.

After graduating from Durham University, he made the leap to professional rugby, playing for the Newcastle Falcons and making a name for himself on the international Rugby Sevens circuit, as a prolific try-scorer in this fast-paced version of the game. Over a remarkable career that spanned more than a decade, he captained England, played at three World Cups and, in 2009, claimed the prestigious award of World Player of the Year.  

But if he has experienced his fair share of highs, it’s fair to say that he has also been hugely affected by the lows, as hitting his peak was followed by injury that forced him into retirement. Unwilling to accept the finality of this situation, and with an Olympic Games potentially on the horizon, he threw himself into intrepid adventure pursuits as a distraction and to give himself time to recover. After sailing round the world and setting a Guinness World Record at the North Pole, it was a full two years later that he had to resign himself to the idea that his rugby-playing days were over.

A senior role with PwC beckoned but with it came severe imposter syndrome at having to transition from the rugby pitch to the boardroom. Watch the interview for Ollie’s insights into what it takes to develop the mindset of a professional athlete and how he overcame the setback of his career ending prematurely and having to face the challenge of the corporate world.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please make sure you subscribe and share it with your friends, and check back for more great interviews coming soon.

'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.