In this episode of the 87% podcast we spoke with Jo Hooper, founder of the Mad and Sad Club. Jo had a successful career in communications, and like many others worked her way up a career ladder which resulted in her bagging her (what she thought) 'dream job'. Jo says that work is one of her main triggers for mental ill health, and expands upon experiences she has been though which led to her entirely changing her career path. Being made redundant from a role, or ending a job drastically can appear daunting and understandably scary, but sometimes it leads to wonderful new beginnings. Listen to Jo's story here...

Life Happens: Jo Hooper

Life Happens is the mental fitness podcast brought to you by 87%, the mental wellbeing platform.

In the series, James Gwinnett, endurance athlete and Marketing Director of 87%, speaks to inspirational people from the worlds of adventure, business, intelligence, sports, the military and more, to get their take on life’s ups and downs, the setbacks they’ve overcome and how they’ve dealt with failure to get to where there are at the pinnacle of their sectors, all with the aim of helping listeners build positive mental health.

Health & Fitness

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.

'Life Happens' ... with Paula Talman

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.

'Life Happens' ... with Sgt. Aaron Quinonez

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.

'Life Happens' ... with Ruari Fairbairns

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.

'Life Happens' ... with Nicky Marshall

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.

Life Happens: Jo Hooper

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