Unexpected Turns

We all need to feel safe, and expect to be safe in our own home yet a year ago 9yr old Olivia Corbel Pratt was tragically shot dead when her mother opened their front door. Years early Darren Barden opened his front door and was viciously attacked and left for dead, while his family slept upstairs. Like Olivia, Darren was not the target, how do you ever come to terms with that?

Somehow Darren survived, although his physical wounds healed, his mental scars remain. Hear how he is only now over 20years later coming to terms with his ordeal. A trauma that has given him a determination to live every minute and a passion to help others, particularly men, accept and express their feelings. As he says skip to the good bits.

Skip to the Good Bits by Darren Barden

@darren.barden

#mensmentalhealth #mentalhealth #unexpectedturnspod #realtalk #positivity #trauma #knifecrime

What is enough? We seem to spend our lives thinking we haven't got enough, we aren't good enough or they aren't good enough for us. Michael Ankers and I had a fascinating discussion about this, having just turned 19 Michael feels he is enough and that his one time best friend has caused him enough stress and it is time for him to move on. Hear the song Michael wrote on today's show.

Unfortunately much of the recording was corrupted so I have instead answered some of the many questions you, our listeners have sent in asking about us, a group of technophobes in our 60s who until we started this show had never much even listened to a podcast.

Warning: Episode contains references to drugs, violence and abuse.

Jack Gregory, poet, film maker, family man and addict.

Failed by the UK Special School System, abused by the adults who should have been caring for him he became mentally ill. labelled a homeless junkie and violent criminal. He had lost everything. Determined to be a better man Jack fought his way back. Hear who and what helped him turn his life around.

#mentalhealth #addiction #prison #recovery #realtalk #sexualabuse

Today we met Trevor Jones, a promising young athlete who was found coughing up blood at the side of the road, he had now idea how he had got there. Trevor was suffering from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), broken back and numerous other injuries. Just how do you recover from such a devastating event? Like many of our guests Trevor was determined to return to what he considered 'normal' life. After years fighting his way to a 'new normal', Trevor was content and in his final year of Medical School when tragedy struck again.

Once again Trevor fought his way back.

Truly inspiring stories of fortidude and resilience.

#unexpectedturns #tbi #visionimpairment #survivors #resilience ######

Elizabeth went on the write the book "Front Line and Fortitude"' a unique memoir based on the wartime diaries of Maria Pilbrow, MBE, who, as a young newlywed, followed her army husband to India in 1943. There she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Services (Burma), an intrepid band of women who provided canteen services for the men of the Fourteenth Army during the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.