Sarah Thomas moments after leaving the sea, courtesy of BBC.
All hail the amazing Sarah Thomas. If exactly who Sarah is has somehow passed you by let me enlighten you. Sarah Thomas is a remarkable woman, aged 37, who has just achieved an astonishing feat of endurance for anyone ever, not just the first woman. She is the first person to swim across the English Channel 4 times, non stop! (OK she was allowed 10 minutes each end but let’s not quibble about that.) And she couldn’t even go the shortest route because of the tides and currents, see below. 130 miles of swimming. And she had treatment for breast cancer just last year. It is such a feat of endurance. If I had been anywhere close to Folkstone in Kent I would have been there cheering her home. Utterly amazing. Four people have swum the channel three times but no one has ever done it 4 times. Sarah dedicated her swim ‘to all the survivors out there’. I am in awe.
Here is how the BBC covered it, which also includes a video where, with huge understatement, she describes herself as a ‘bit tired’.
Melissa Blake
Another courageous woman crossed my radar this month. Her name is Melissa Blake and she works as a freelance journalist, specialising in disability. Melissa has endured multiple operations to try and straighten out her joints, hands and knees and to treat her scoliosis which has caused her spine to curve. It has also had an impact on her appearance. She looks ‘different’. And different people get targeted…
Melissa is a fan of Twitter which is where I first encountered her. In a week which has seen British personalities being encouraged not to engage with trolls (see here), it seems timely to share her story.
Most women are used to people (including women as well as men) feeling entitled to comment publicly on how they look. Whole magazines are dedicated to this. Melissa has had more than her fair share of spiteful, hateful comments on social media. She was fond of posting selfies on Twitter but daring to be different and not crawl away under a rock did not seem to make her many friends, at least initially.
“There were comments from people calling me ‘ugly’ and saying ‘she looks like a parade balloon,'” Melissa told the BBC.
The final straw came when a particularly nasty commenter suggested she should be banned from posting pictures of herself online because of how she looks.
“I thought, well, I’m going to do the opposite and show them that they’re not going to get the better of me.”
In response to people calling her ugly, Melissa, then shared three selfies of herself on Twitter.
One of her selfies Melissa posted on Twitter
Hut in Garden Update
Last month I wrote a post about my search for an appropriate garden studio to run my courses for women in from my home in Bath. I think I have found one. I asked about ideas for a name and one rather brilliant suggestion (take a bow, Val,) was to call it The Changing Room. As long as no one thinks being it involves the removal of any attire, we’re good to go with that one! Mary Love and I are meeting soon to put together the inaugural course which will be sometime in January, all being well. I wrote a post about it back in August but I know August is a month when so many of you are away so I’m reproducing part of it here. We may even have to have a competition for a name for that, too. Here’s the extract-
Wellness for Women
I trialled a new idea for a course at the beginning of May with a small number of brave women. They were very complimentary, bless them, but I know it wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be. It was about general wellness, how prescient! I must learn to practise what I preach… One huge plus of being unwell was the love and support of friends and the long conversations and visits. I want to tell you about one friend in particular, Mary Love.
Mary is a nurse by profession. We are almost exactly the same age and worked together in the NHS for many years. Our first encounter was trying to conduct an interview with a pervy chap from HR and silently working out how to limit the damage he was doing with his ridiculously sexist and random questions. Mary had her own epiphany and left her management role in the NHS to live and work in a beautiful place in Southern Ireland.
Mary Love by John Post
Recently she has set up her own business called Mary Loves Mindful Eating. For years Mary and I were the same size, which is to say we both needed to be about 6 inches taller to be the ideal weight for our height. Then Mary transformed herself. We were talking about this and Mary said it is extremely hard to lose weight when you are severely stressed and also if you are not sleeping properly. That rang a bell. We talked some more and a germ of an idea was born. Mary wants to expand her practice to the UK. I am building a studio in the garden this Autumn. After about 30 minutes we realised the obvious thing to do was to create a course together. Obviously.
It will not, I promise you, be a course about being thin and glamorous and conforming to some ridiculous idea of what women should look like. I have spent a lifetime helping people make constructive and positive change in their lives and Mary has the medical knowledge, qualifications and experience. The day will be about looking after yourself, being healthy and leading a fulfilled life. I can’t give you any more details yet because it’s a work in progress but I can promise you it will be properly researched, backed up by evidence, and most definitely enjoyable. The course will launch in January for anyone wanting to have a great start to 2020 and will be in my (new) garden studio near Bath. I am slightly feeling the pressure to be healthy by that date and, if not 6 inches taller, the healthy weight for my height. I think it will probably involve some follow up coaching but more details will follow. We have pencilled in Monday, January 20th, 2020. If you’re interested in putting your name down for this please get in touch, no obligation at all.
Changing People licences experienced trainers, coaches and organisations to deliver its International RenewYou programme for women. Read more about it here
RenewYou, My Tried and Tested Career Booster!
RenewYou has helped thousands of women make positive and lasting change in their lives. I deliver it one-to-one as part of a bespoke coaching package for women looking to move into leadership, to progress their career, or who wish to be the absolute best version of themselves.
Posted on September 17th, 2019 by Jane
