By Kathryn Smith
The podcast currently has 23 episodes available.
My guest is ultra runner, Jamie Aarons. On 26th June, 2023, Jamie became the fastest person to self propel herself round all 282 Munros (mountains over 3, 000 feet in Scotland) cycling and kayaking between them. She did it in 31 days, 10 hours and 27 minutes (12 hours faster than the previous record holder, Donnie Campbell). But her achievement has become so much more than the world record that she now holds.
Back at work as a Social Work advisor for the Scottish Government, I talk to Jamie today about the community spirit created around this event, the challenges she faced and the legacy she has created. I also speak to her friend Jenny and partner Andy who played key roles in the success of this challenge.
Read all about the challenge and sponsors at Jamie's Munro Challenge
And here: Fiona Outdoors
Follow Jamie on
Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
Donate to World Bike Relief on her Just Giving Page
Cover photo courtesy of Stark Images
I asked Maria Leijerstam Edy to come on because, as someone I met many years ago through Adventure Racing (pre-kids), I look up to – she has taken on extreme challenges (first person to cycle to the South Pole and fastest human powered coast to South Pole traverse in 10 days, 14hrs and 56 minutes being the craziest, as well as cycled the length of NZ, run the marathon de sable, and been the first woman to compete in the Siberian Black Ice Race, cycling across Lake Baikal)! She is also mum to two girls, 5 & 7years old. I was keen to hear behind the scenes of that image of a polar explorer with her frozen hair and red nose and how the challenges she has put herself through have equipped her for being a parent. After our chat I felt even more connected and inspired, as Maria shared the challenges of just getting from 7am to 7pm with kids and we shared a giggle at our incontinence issues, post giving birth to two kids…
Maria's book- Cycling to the South Poll: A World First
Maria's business- Burns Series Family Adventure Racing
Book recommendation- The Accidental Adventurer by Nahla Summers
Elsie MacDonald is a client, who got in touch to continue therapeutic work after being involved in a peri-natal clinical psychology service for support with depression when she was pregnant and then for the first year of her daughter’s life. On listening to Truthbook, Elsie said she’d like to come on to share her behind the scenes.
Elise has a one year old daughter Orla, and lives in in Strathblane, about 12 miles north of Glasgow, just beneath the Campsie Fells. She has just returned to work as a teaching assistant in a school for children with additional support needs after maternity leave. Outside of work she is a keen cook and enjoys the outdoors
Elsie wanted to come on Truthbook because despite having a straightforward pregnancy in terms of physical health, she struggled with her mental health especially in the second half of the pregnancy. She was referred to the NHS peri-natal mental health service and the help she received from them made it possible for her to get through the pregnancy and survive that first year as a mum. When she was discharged from that service she was keen to continue with some kind of therapy to keep the conversation going, even though she was feeling very well.
Elsie hopes that somebody somewhere might listen to this and gain some hope that things can get better, however dark you might be feeling. And that there is support out there.
Rosie Gilderthorp is a mum to three kids (aged 6, 4.5 and 14 months), a Clinical Psychologist and Podcaster. She is the founder of The Psychology Business School and the Do More Than Therapy, which aim to help private psychologists grow their business so they can be as effective as possible in helping others. She also specialises in mental health support for pregnancy, birth and parenthood, having had her own experience of a crushing 9 months of pregnancy sickness! She does this whilst predominantly solo parenting as her husband is in the military and often away.
We chat the ups and downs of not being able to multi-task (being extremely focused vs forgetting to pick your kids up), her experience of severe pregnancy sickness and impact on mental health, how we can break down barriers to seeking therapy and have a giggle at the image Rosie has of herself in one of the parent moments when you were glad no one was watching…
https://www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk
https://psychologybusinessschool.com
https://www.facebook.com/domorethantherapy/
Delighted to have Nathan on Truthbook, 32 year old son of Robyn (Episode 17 - If you've not already listened, then head back to it as this will make a lot more sense).
Nathan has many strings to his chatty and creative bow: Producer and announcer at SeaFM (in Tasmania!), a composer, producer, event manager and MC with his own brand called Belief Machine based out of his home recording studio (I had a tour-it's very cool) and an entry level motorsport driver. The boy who talked too much in class and just wanted to be famous has found his niche!
Nathan was more than happy to shove on a pair of headphones and chat to me about his time at school, his perspective on teachers looking back, moving to England and share his wise advice for parents…
There has been a long pause in getting this episode out as the last 5 months have been all about shifting life from Tasmania back to Scotland- packing, unpacking, re-acquainting with family and friends and Scotland. Finally feeling settled back home, I was able to bring myself to listen back to this interview with Robyn Gay whose softly spoken Australian accent and talk of Penguin in Tasmania where we lived brought back what are now life long memories.
Robyn is another Yoga friend of the third age, who talks about the power of realising you can chose who and what you want to be, how being a parent is amazing and challenging, how having a kid with a kind nature does count and how the quandary of how to talk to her son about sex backfired...
Annette is my first Truthbook grandmother and wonderful yoga teacher. Annette’s words will warm your heart as she shares her experience of being ill as a child with an underactive thyroid, her passion for seeing the good in people and inclusivity and how this has been passed on through generations of her family, and her journey as a Grandmother.
Annette was introduced to yoga when she lived in a remote village in Bali in 1975 and has been teaching yoga and Pilates in Australia since 1994. She specialises in yoga for people with physical disabilities such as MS, cancer, immune disorders and intellectual disabilities. Most recently she specialises is people with lymphatic and immune system disorders. She is passionate about enabling students to access Yoga whatever their condition. She is highly qualified and informed, having done a masters in medical sciences researching the effects of yoga on women with secondary arm lymphoedema from breast cancer. Having earned a well deserved reputation in the field of rehabilitation she is a sought after speaker nationally and internationally.
Talking to Annette was so re-affirming and I was left feeling like I do after her yoga sessions- grounded, soothed and seeing the best in people.
Links
Penguin Yoga Pilates
Dawn Meredith, author, teacher, counsellor, artist, mum…encompasses all things creative. She is driven by strong values that have seen her swap urban life for rural farm life and unplug the TV. We chat about the tornado in her mind, her escape to hoodie land when she has reached her limit and the ever-present guilt monster telling her that she should not be taking time out for herself. And a rare night off being mum leaves a taste of what life once kids have left home might just be like…
Dawn and I chatted in her cosy studio on her farm in North West Tasmania. Dawn grew up in England, Norway and Australia. Despite spending most of her life in the Southern Hemisphere, she still finds celebrating Christmas in the summer ‘just wrong’.
Dawn is driven with a passion to “excite kids to turn off the computer and delve into the extraordinary, imaginary world of books; expand their thinking, challenge their narrow view of the world, open their minds to discover new and exciting ideas”. She has written 12 books for children, including '12 Annoying Monsters: Self-talk for kids with anxiety, and 'The Anything Shop" and one adult fiction book 'Letters From the Dead'.
She started out working as a secondary school art teacher, but realised it was not for her after 5 minutes. She spent the next 28years as a special education teacher, literacy specialist and children’s counsellor.
Three years ago she swapped teaching for farming and moved to Crumbleton Farm North West Tassie with her husband Al and their 15yr old daughter Rosie. They have around 300 sheep, all of whom have a name.
Al is also a dog trainer and was involved in Home and Away as a dog wrangler and trainer!
For Dawn, chronic pain since she was in a serious car accident in 1999, has made balancing life and creativity tricky some days.
Dawn gives a very honest and thought provoking Truthbook.
Links
Dawn Meredith Author Blog
Crumbleton Farm Blog
Instagram
Like this episode...
My guest, Kate Reid, is a fellow Scot with a beautiful voice but she talks about having such low confidence that she struggles to accept compliments. Kate talks about her struggle with a binge eating disorder, how opening up and talking was the single most helpful thing, and we muse over whether we can ever truly understand how the mind works…
I invited Kate onto Truthbook because I have loved her honesty and openness through poems, songs, and Facebook posts. In her own words, she has always had an insatiable appetite for wanting to understand why she feels the way she feels and has found solace in talking.
Our paths crossed in the early 2000s, during her days in the Scottish band The Midden-where she was the lead singer and guitarist with her sisters, Meggan and Hazel. A measure of their success-playing in front of 25,000 at Glasgow’s Hogmany in 2004 with Snow Patrol! I remember a particularly vibrant and foot tapping night at the battle of the bands in the Scotia bar in Glasgow and celebrating their win with a pint of Guinness.
Since then, Kate has continued to keep life interesting; she is a singer, songwriter, she has written a book of poems and has a novel in the making. She spent 9 years teaching French, German and Music and more recently she is a radio presenter with Dunoon Community Radio. She is a Top 200 UK chart singer (check out Kate’s newly released song Caroline below). At the age of 40, in 2019, she became a MUM to Alexander….
Kate and Alexander live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world on the North Coast of Scotland.
But behind the scenes of these positive images, Kate has battled with a binge eating disorder pretty much since puberty. I remember when she first spoke about it on FB and thinking wow, I had no idea…
Get touch if you want to follow up anything from this episode-
Kathryn- [email protected]
Kate- [email protected]
Links
Kate's website
https://katereid.online
Kate's single Caroline
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/id1570666345?app=itunes
The Midden
https://www.facebook.com/themidden
OnTrack Devon
https://ontrackretreats.co.uk/
Crunch Nutrition
https://www.crunchnutrition.co.uk/
The Binge Eating Therapist
https://thebingeeatingtherapist.com/
Headspace
https://www.headspace.com
Elaine Kordys shares her Truthbook with honesty and humour. We hear Elaine's reflections on two lots of lock down homeschooling & managing her daughters new found autonomy; parenting with Rheumatoid Arthritis (Arthur as she calls it); the immense pride you can feel as a parent as well as those Cruella Di Vil parenting moments. And we finish off with some potty talk!
Elaine is from Helensburgh in Scotland (my home town) and we became friends when Elaine's daughter Molly and my son Struan were babies and shared the same childminder. They were kindred spirits until school age and they went their separate ways.
Elaine followed her passion in helping and working with people with Dementia by starting an MSc in dementia studies in 2019 and setting up and running a wonderful series of videos of creative movement for the aged and people with dementia, called Spin Turn Movements. The videos have been a family affair involving her daughters Robyn (7yrs) and Molly (10yrs) and her husband Myles (seen strumming the banjo in the background).
Her most recent video, April 21, was a personal one, because it marked 10 years since Elaine was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthur as she calls it, has shifted, challenged and tested Elaine. She has now found a way to live with it, after doing a course in Holistic Health Coaching.
Please reach out to Elaine (via her spin turn movement FB page) if you are experiencing similar challenges with arthritis or other types of chronic pain. As well as a wealth of experience and empathy you can be sure she will bring a smile to your face.
Spin Turn Movement
Deeper Yoga Thrive Course
Deeper Yoga & Thrive on Facebook
Elaine's testimonial for Deeper Yoga Thrive Course
Like this episode...
The podcast currently has 23 episodes available.