Simon talks to widower Steve Bland who describes his life before meeting his wife, Rachel Bland and the difficult journey to a new normal after her death. 

If you have been through life events similar to those described in this episode and you need someone to talk to, please contact the samaritans, free any time, from any phone, on 116 123

And if you'd like to share your thoughts with Simon, he'd love to hear from you:

Twitter

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Steve Bland

Simon Thomas explores human endurance through the toughest times. In a series of interviews with well-known celebrities and notable people, he discovers how crisis and desperation can lead to hope and inspiration for a new and happy life. In each episode, we find out that there are so many others experiencing mental anguish, who have lived through the most difficult times. We hear how many have overcome tragedy to live happy and fulfilling lives.

Health & Fitness

This epsiode of Life Interrupted with Katie Price, was recorded in April 2021. 

Katie Price, known for many years as Jordan, her picture hung on many a bedroom wall and covering the front of tabloids and magazines. 

But the Katie Price you think you know, is very different in reality.

Although she began her career courting fame and publicity; famously she ended up marrying Peter Andre after they fell in love on ITV's "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here", she has longed for her side of the story to be heard.

Katie has felt for a long time that the media portrayal of her is unfair. 

In this honest chat, I discovered that instead of the hard and cold person the media sometimes paint her as, she's actually a very sensitive and caring person, not least for her son Harvey, who has Prader-Willi Syndrome. 

Behind the scenes is a lady who has endured years of her own battles with trauma and mental illness.

Katie's story is colorful, and at times desperately sad, but her humour and hope for the future shine throughout.

If you have been through life events similar to those described in this episode and you need someone to talk to, please contact the samaritans, free any time, from any phone, on 116 123

And if you'd like to share your thoughts with Simon, he'd love to hear from you:

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@SimonThomasSky

Katie Price

Libby Scott is fourteen years old. She loves hot chocolate, Taylor Swift and lives in Kent with her family. 
Her dad is a musician and Libby's mum is an education consultant and conference speaker. 

Libby is also autistic. For many years, it was a battle for her to understand herself and for her family and friends to understand her. 
Following an autism diagnosis, Libby was finally able to understand herself better and express how she felt. 

In 2018, her mum Kim, decided to share a piece of Libby's writing online. The piece went viral and was liked and retweeted thousands of times.

The next year she wrote her first book with co-writer Rebecca Wescott. It is called "Can You See Me", a story about an autistic girl called Tally who tries to navigate school and her social life. 

Now fourteen, Libby is publishing her third book called "Ways To Be Me", which focuses on the process of getting a diagnosis. It's a brilliant and extraordinary book that not only will help many people understand autism better, but one that will give hope and perhaps more importantly, a voice to others with autism. 

Libby is a remarkable young lady. And it was a great honor for her and her mum Kim to join me on this episode of Life Interrupted.

If you have been through life events similar to those described in this episode and you need someone to talk to, please contact The Samaritans, on 116 123

And if you'd like to share your thoughts with Simon, he'd love to hear from you:

Twitter

@SimonThomasSky

Libby Scott

Sixteen years ago, Matt Hampson was a professional rugby union player with bags of potential. 

He was on the books of the then formidable Leicester tigers, caps for the England Under-Eighteens  and Under Twenty-Ones. 

Everything pointed Matt having a hugely successful playing career. 

But on a cold Tuesday morning in March 2005, whilse training with the England Under Twenty-Ones, everything changed in one single moment. 

As the forwards practice, the scrum Matt was part of collapsed and his neck took the full force of the blow. 

Many days later, he woke up in an intensive care unit, paralyzed from the neck down and now needing a ventilator just to stay alive. He was just twenty years old, and now a tetraplegic. 

For many, the road back to having any kind of life again, would have looked virtually impossible. But after seventeen long months in hospital, and many more in rehabilitation, Matt began to slowly rediscover life again.

Through setting up the Matt Hampson Foundation, he's now devoted his life to helping men and women have also had to face up to life changing injuries. 

Matt teamed up with Author Paul Kimmage, to write the extraordinary tale of his life in his brilliant book, Engage. 

This is the story of a man whose world collapsed. A man who then found the strength and determination to reshape his life into one that should leave us all feeling inspired.

If you have been through life events similar to those described in this episode and you need someone to talk to, please contact The Samaritans, on 116 123

And if you'd like to share your thoughts with Simon, he'd love to hear from you:

Twitter

@SimonThomasSky

Matt Hampson

Dilly Carter may not be a name familiar to lots of people, but to the many thousands who follow her Instagram account DeClutter Dollies, she's very well known.

Her daily tips and hacks help her many followers to not just declutter their homes, but to declutter their lives. 

She's now not just the author of a new book Create Space, which is as much about decluttering our minds as it is our homes, but she's also one of the presenters of the BBC One show Sort Your Life Out. 

To everyone watching on, Dilly's life looks one of order, organization and calm but it wasn't always like this. 

She was born in Sri Lanka and into a chaotic world as she spent the first part of her life in an orphanage. 

Eventually, three years later, Dilly was adopted by a couple living in England.

Dilly's story is a complex one. It's the story of a reluctant man who questioned if he could ever love someone else's daughter. 

It's a story of an adoptive mum who had her own battles with being bipolar and the tale of rejection by Dillys blood parents. 

And her story is eventually one of acceptance of a couple who came to love her as their own. 

Dilly's life so far has brought so much help and hope to others not just practically, but emotionally and mentally as well.

If you have been through life events similar to those described in this episode and you need someone to talk to, please contact The Samaritans, on 116 123

And if you'd like to share your thoughts with Simon, he'd love to hear from you:

Twitter

@SimonThomasSky

Dilly Carter

Charlie Corbett is a name that won't be familiar to many. But he has a story that should be heard by many. 

Charlie is a writer, journalist, public speaker, husband and father to two sons. He grew up the son of a farmer and spent his childhood living a rural life immersed in the sights and sounds of the nature around him. 

After university, he left his farming roots behind and spent the next twenty years as a journalist reporting on business and finance. It was about as far away from the countryside life of his youth you could get. 

Yet, when he was 35, Charlie's world was profoundly interrupted when after a long struggle with cancer, his mum died. 

As Charlie battled with the weight and despair of grief, it was the song of a skylark as he lay on the side of a lonely hill, that began to lead him on a journey of healing.

It was a journey of rediscovering not just about the power of nature, but also himself. 

Now he's written an incredible book called 12 birds to save your life (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442899/12-birds-to-save-your-life/9780241503331). 

It's a moving tale of loss, but also one of great joy and hope, as Charlie tells the tale of the amazing power of nature, and the songs of the birds around us which bring healing and joy in even the darkest of times. 

If you have been through life events similar to those described in this episode and you need someone to talk to, please contact The Samaritans, on 116 123

And if you'd like to share your thoughts with Simon, he'd love to hear from you:

Twitter

@SimonThomasSky

Steve Bland

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