The Raw Truth with Harriet Bremner

Amber Tyrrell, along with her husband Patrick run a successful glamping business in the Waitaki Valley.

At 13 years old Amber witnessed the death of her younger sister Charmaine. Following was a terrible time of grief and guilt.

Amber talks about her journey to healing and hopes to help those who listen to her story with their own journey forward.

At 25 years old Zoe, a nurse at Christchurch hospital received the news that her father had been in a farming accident and was in critical condition. With sisters overseas and the media releasing photos before her whole family had been told the news, Zoe battled with grief and trauma in its entirety. 8 years on Zoe bravely shares her story and fantastic insight into how people helped her along the way while talking about her personal journey with grief, trauma and all the things that go with losing someone dear to you. You don't want to miss Zoe's honest and raw account and as she told me, listening to the previous podcasts has helped her and I know that Zoe's will help someone out there too.

Hannah, a former engineer, high achieving endurance athlete with the talent to boot whose life had a complete make-over when grief hit her hard, really hard. The traumatic loss of her best and only trusted friend amidst the heartbreaking cancer battle her father was facing.

Realising that things needed to change, Hannah, now a grief coach and writer with her own business shares her story of loss, flipping life on itself for the better and how she has moved forward and learnt how to sit with grief while giving others a safe space to do the same.

Hannah’s story of honesty and life is not only inspiring but motivating to those around her that anything is possible.

Imagine being on a plane, heading overseas for that first big family holiday but you arrive in a country that is foreign to you and your husband has passed away on the plane en route. Helen talks to her Raw Truth about that horrendous trip where she was left stranded in an airport with two small children, suddenly widowed. She speaks openly about her traumatic experience and also about the pure kindness of strangers when her world was tipped upside down.

An amazing woman, who has courage beyond her years and one hell of a story to share.

Harry is your salt of the earth kiwi bloke who loves his family, friends and the land but he has already, in his 20s, been through insufferable loss with friends and family taking their own lives. Through his own mental health journey, Harry has shared his story at Will to Live evenings with brutal honestly bringing the raw truth about issues in our rural communities and the lack of access to mental health services. Harry has a cracking sense of humour and drives to continue to advocate for change to help people while continuing to look after himself. To be able to have honest conversations with someone so young who has been through so much and tell it how it really is, which is the reality for so many people out there, this will be a chat to not be missed.

A fresh 15-year-old school girl attends the funeral of her beloved mother just before 5th form begins. Catherine, looks back, sharing her story about loss through the eyes of her teenage self while sharing what she has learnt from life along the way. She knows better than anyone how harsh and unfair the world can be, yet she is such a positive uplifting and beautiful person. As her friends, we feel we let her down as we were not educated during that time to know how to support Catherine with her grief. Catherine believes that we should be able to talk about our loved ones and share stories about them to keep their memories alive and often jokes that all our phone calls could be turned into podcasts.

Gisborne born and bred Jess is a friend who knows grief all too well. The loss of her mother several years ago was a journey that she has been forced through. She was living at the other end of the country while her mother got progressively worse with her illness and this was nothing short of bloody hard. I was there when she got the news and watched my best friend crumble before me only some 4 months after I myself had gone through my loss.
A friendship that bonded over intense grief and trauma, Jess has been the rock that I have needed so very often and I hers. Confirming for us that no one truly understands it until they have lived it, together, we are passionate about changing how people perceive grief and how they deal with it so that they can help someone they know who is going through it. A staunch believer that no one’s grief is worse or better than someone else’s but grief for everyone, no matter what, is just different.

Imagine this… you are a trained primary school teacher in a rural area in your early 20’s and there is a high school teacher shortage in the area school that you work in. Next minute you are called upon to teach a group of students in a specialised subject you have never taught before.

Then… one of your students passes away. Not that much younger than herself, Sam found herself as a teacher, a role of leadership, while having to support her students through such a tough time. Living and working in a small rural community, the ripple effect that something like this has on the community as a whole is massive. Since then Sam has continued to be a teacher while supporting her husband on their farm and their two children. She spent years as a volunteer for St John ambulance where she has seen immense tragedy and hardship. With the loss of her mother and supporting me through my loss, Sam knows all too well how rural communities need to band together in times of need and how important it is for us to speak up so that we are less likely to feel alone and isolated.

In this episode, Harriet talks to Elle Perriam, founder of Will to Live, a rural mental health charitable trust. Elle's story goes back to when she lost her partner to suicide.