Speaker 1: Hey guys, and I'll welcome back to another episode of
Speaker 1: Life Uncut. I'm Brittany, I'm Laura, and currently I'm sitting
Speaker 1: on BRIT's floor on a rug and I've just found
Speaker 1: a screw. There you go, britt, Well, actually I don't
Speaker 1: know where that came from, but that looks dangerous. It
Speaker 1: was it's just here next to us on the floor.
Speaker 1: But you know what's concerning is that has obviously come
Speaker 1: out of something. So is there something in my house
Speaker 1: that is about to topple over because now it has
Speaker 1: no screw? Probably, And I just think that this is
Speaker 1: another reel. I we can say a screw in the coffin.
Speaker 1: We just need to get a studio. We need to
Speaker 1: stop recording on the ground. Hey, actually this is a
Speaker 1: great natural segue, Laura. I did put out a story
Speaker 1: not like longing, on my Instagram that was, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: is anyone a real estate agent in East slide into
Speaker 1: my damnse I have a question Brittany using her influence
Speaker 1: for good. I can't get a bloody rental. I thought
Speaker 1: I'll put a call out. I am really really wanting
Speaker 1: to get a dog. Everyone knows it. It's I'm obsessed
Speaker 1: with it. But I can't have a dog in my apartment.
Speaker 1: My landlord continues to say no, even though like, I'm
Speaker 1: the cleanest person. Irrelevant. Why does your landlord hate you
Speaker 1: so much? She hates me? I don't know. I hope
Speaker 1: she actually listened to lafe On. I think she actually
Speaker 1: likes me. She's really nice, but she's just dead adamant
Speaker 1: that I'm not allowed a dog and I cannot find
Speaker 1: a rental that allows a dog because I need two
Speaker 1: big bedrooms. I need to make one for a studio
Speaker 1: for Life on Cut, and I need it to be
Speaker 1: dog friendly, and apparently that means you pay twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a week anywhere in the East, and there's
Speaker 1: like one option. So if anyone is I've had a
Speaker 1: few people like I have had a few people slide
Speaker 1: using the podcast to do a call out for accommodation
Speaker 1: and housing for yourself. That's exactly what I'm read. If
Speaker 1: anyone's a real estate agent, I hope I can't helping me. Actually,
Speaker 1: at the moment that I just met down at the
Speaker 1: local pasta shop, she ran into me. She's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm a real age and I'll help you but if
Speaker 1: anyone knows of anything, maybe it's a private rent tool
Speaker 1: that will allow a dog. I can vouch for myself,
Speaker 1: Laura can vouch for me. I'm a great tenant. I
Speaker 1: am sure. I'm shut after two years of us creating
Speaker 1: this podcast community, this is what you're using them for.
Speaker 1: I need housing, I need actually something funny. Happy. This morning,
Speaker 1: early this morning in Sydney, it's raining. If you're not
Speaker 1: from Sydney, it has been raining here for days. It's
Speaker 1: going to be continue to rain for the next week. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I wake up really early and I was like, I've
Speaker 1: got to get out. I'm going to go for a walk.
Speaker 1: So I rolled out of bed. I haven't brushed my
Speaker 1: hair in a couple of days. Don't want to, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not nothing to brag about, but I haven't brushed
Speaker 1: in a couple of days. I rolled out of bed
Speaker 1: and I went for a walk in the rain at
Speaker 1: about six thirty seven am. And I saw this girl
Speaker 1: in my peripheral sort of like running beside me, like
Speaker 1: she did a double take, and she ended up coming
Speaker 1: up to me after following me for like twenty meters,
Speaker 1: and she's like, excuse me, and I was like yeah,
Speaker 1: and she said I could be way off track and
Speaker 1: I'm not actually sure, but do you have a podcast?
Speaker 1: And I said and I was like, yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: That's me Chrus. She said I love your podcast. But
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, but you didn't know it was me.
Speaker 1: You can't love jimud. She's like, I love your podcast.
Speaker 1: She's like, I just didn't really recognize you. And I
Speaker 1: was like, nope, that's because like catfishy all, this is
Speaker 1: what I look like when I roll out of bed
Speaker 1: in the morning and I'm in the rain. And she
Speaker 1: was like, oh no, it's not that, and I was like,
Speaker 1: it is. Let's not lie. This is what it is. Anyway,
Speaker 1: thank you to that person that pointed out that I
Speaker 1: don't look like my Instagram at six day in the
Speaker 1: morning in the rain, and thank you for saying you
Speaker 1: love the podcast. But that was my morning, Laura. What
Speaker 1: have you been up to? We just got back from
Speaker 1: Byron yesterday. I saw that in the Daily Rain there
Speaker 1: was a lot going on. Do you know what there was?
Speaker 1: Actually there was COVID cases at the hotel that we
Speaker 1: stayed at. So we got home and then we found
Speaker 1: out when we landed that there had been COVID cases
Speaker 1: at Elements. The hotel was great, we had a great time,
Speaker 1: but there was two cases and so we had to
Speaker 1: get off the plane and go straight to getting a
Speaker 1: COVID test, which, you know what, guys rest assured got
Speaker 1: the results, but I was like, you're in my house
Speaker 1: right now, have you got your result? No, the results
Speaker 1: this morning. Of course we are negative. It seems like
Speaker 1: everything has gone back to normal. But then there was
Speaker 1: this weird little reminder that COVID is still out there.
Speaker 1: So that was a kind of anticlimactic way to finish
Speaker 1: the holiday. Well, speaking about Byron, you have some exciting
Speaker 1: news to share or that has been shared for you.
Speaker 1: We weren't going to share this. I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: mention this, but Daily Mail wrote an article about it,
Speaker 1: so you know what, It's always nice when your news
Speaker 1: gets taken. It's like when you've got something really exciting
Speaker 1: to tell and your friend or someone just takes it
Speaker 1: from you and they're like, oh, we already know you
Speaker 1: tell them. You're like yeah, session and Stuch told us yes. Cool.
Speaker 1: You're like I'm having a baby and your Mum's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I already know. Your sister told me, you're like, great, yeah,
Speaker 1: co that's awesome. So we bought a house just maybe
Speaker 1: about half an hour outside of Byron. I thought you
Speaker 1: were going to say half an hour ago. Half an
Speaker 1: hour outside of Byron. We bought a house during COVID,
Speaker 1: maybe about three or four months ago. We hadn't been
Speaker 1: able to see it. We bought it over zoom Inspections.
Speaker 1: Matt and I have been looking for the better part
Speaker 1: of this entire year, and we found the place that
Speaker 1: we fell in love with, and we weren't going to
Speaker 1: share the news we were going to keep because we're
Speaker 1: not moving there straight away, and because we hadn't seen
Speaker 1: the house and we're not moving there until like maybe
Speaker 1: the end of next year. Brittany and I have some
Speaker 1: big podcast planned. Looking at Laura when she's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I bought a house, I was like, congrats, talk me
Speaker 1: through it. When are you moving? So the whole purpose
Speaker 1: of us going on this trip to Buyron was we
Speaker 1: went there to go and see the house. So it
Speaker 1: wasn't really a holiday. It was more like, hey, congratulations,
Speaker 1: you have a very big mortgage and you'll be in
Speaker 1: debt for forever, yes, sucker. And we went out to
Speaker 1: the property and we got to see it, and then
Speaker 1: we got back to the hotel that we were staying
Speaker 1: at and we got this text message from somebody who
Speaker 1: works in media who was like, Hey, Laura and Matt,
Speaker 1: I'd just love to get a statement from you guys
Speaker 1: about the house that you've just bought. We just saw
Speaker 1: some beautiful photos of you standing in front of the
Speaker 1: Fasoult sign. You're like, excuse me. Obviously it's big news
Speaker 1: and we're super excited about it, but it was your
Speaker 1: ner news and you don't have to share anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I guess like we're also very acutely aware that
Speaker 1: it's a fucking time in the world, you know, like
Speaker 1: it's a weird time to be buying houses, it's a
Speaker 1: weird time to be changing things. Like we weren't able
Speaker 1: to see it. It was a huge risk for us,
Speaker 1: and there's been a lot of anxiety around buying our
Speaker 1: first home, and so we just wanted to keep it private,
Speaker 1: and we also wanted to make sure that we had
Speaker 1: the privacy for our kids, like that was the plan
Speaker 1: and the long term when we're living there, we kind
Speaker 1: of didn't want people to know where we lived, which
Speaker 1: is absolutely fair and then anyway, we get sent these
Speaker 1: photos from the Daily Mail, love them, as you guys know.
Speaker 1: And there was a pap hiding in a car, a paparazzi. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure everybody knows what a path is. There
Speaker 1: was a paparazzi hiding in a car across the street
Speaker 1: taking photos of us in front of the new house.
Speaker 1: And we had no idea that they were there. We
Speaker 1: honestly felt like we had no idea the whole time.
Speaker 1: We were probably there for about an hour and a
Speaker 1: half and somebody was hiding in a car taking photos
Speaker 1: of us and our kids, and I just it was
Speaker 1: probably the first time since, like you know, the year
Speaker 1: after Batch ended, that I felt so violated and I
Speaker 1: felt so like intruded upon our privacy that there was
Speaker 1: just some dude lurking in a car taking photos of
Speaker 1: us and our children. Well, the thing is, it's one
Speaker 1: thing for a paparatti to take photos of you without
Speaker 1: knowing whether you're on a walk or you're whatever. That's
Speaker 1: one thing, but it's another thing to have your kids
Speaker 1: involved and to share basically a location of where you're
Speaker 1: gonna live, where your kid's gonna live. There has to.
Speaker 1: I just can't believe there are laws against this. I
Speaker 1: actually am gobsmacked that they care they allowed to put
Speaker 1: that information out. Yeah, I told Britt because like Britt
Speaker 1: sent me the news article. She was like, well, good,
Speaker 1: good job keeping that downloading, guys. And I spent all
Speaker 1: of that day in tears because I just it wasn't
Speaker 1: the way that we wanted the news to get out.
Speaker 1: And also, like one who cares that we bought a house?
Speaker 2: Do you know?
Speaker 1: I mean like we care? We care? I care, I'm excited,
Speaker 1: I don't care, but Jacon, I'm so ba. Anyway, guys,
Speaker 1: that is it. That was the exciting news that we
Speaker 1: had from going up to Byron for this holiday, and
Speaker 1: I'm one step closer to having my commune full of children. Well, congratulations,
Speaker 1: and I hope you keep a little dirt patch out
Speaker 1: the back for me to come and pitch my tent
Speaker 1: and join the commune down the track. Okay, but you
Speaker 1: have to wear clothes. One hundred wearing clothes naked time.
Speaker 1: It's just be hearing me. It's got so weird real quick. Anyway,
Speaker 1: enough about what we've just been up to this last week.
Speaker 1: Now it's time for us to tell you what this
Speaker 1: episode is about. And honestly, guys, I think that this
Speaker 1: is my favorite episode. This is my favorite interview that
Speaker 1: we have ever done. We do say that a lot
Speaker 1: were getting best no I agree, but ever, I think
Speaker 1: as we're going we're getting more people that were like
Speaker 1: just obsessed with and more people that really hit home.
Speaker 1: Because I have had so many interviews I think you
Speaker 1: have too where we're like, this is our favorite ever episode.
Speaker 1: But guys, this one is truly is one of the
Speaker 1: most I guess, touching and powerful episodes. And Kath, who
Speaker 1: Laura's going to tell you about in a minute. Kath
Speaker 1: is just the most inspiring woman I have met in
Speaker 1: as long as I can remember. Honestly, when we were
Speaker 1: so her name is Kath Kosher. When we were interviewing Kath,
Speaker 1: we Brittain I I both were in tears. We were
Speaker 1: both laughing. She is the founder of something called the
Speaker 1: Kindness Factory. Now we're going to get into what that
Speaker 1: is exactly a little bit further along, but a bit
Speaker 1: of information about who Kathy is. She was an elite athlete,
Speaker 1: and she broke her back two separate times and has
Speaker 1: had to teach herself how to walk three times. Her
Speaker 1: story is harrowing, but it is also equally as beautiful,
Speaker 1: and she talks about how the power of stranger's kindness
Speaker 1: is what has really gotten her through. She also talks
Speaker 1: about the loss of her partner and just what she
Speaker 1: has had to go through in order to recover from this.
Speaker 1: But truly, the main take home from this and the
Speaker 1: part of this story that is so incredibly powerful, is
Speaker 1: the conversation around small acts of kindness and Kindness Day
Speaker 1: is coming up. It is on the thirteenth of November,
Speaker 1: which is this Saturday, which is World Kindness Day, World
Speaker 1: Kindness Day, and so we just wanted to, in celebration
Speaker 1: of well Kindness Day, bring you this episode and honestly,
Speaker 1: like we said, if there's ever one that you listen to,
Speaker 1: please make it this because it is just so special.
Speaker 1: She truly is incredible, and she speaks about the fact
Speaker 1: that through all this adversity, through years of tragic, horrific
Speaker 1: accidents and situations, relearning to walk, surviving grief, the thing
Speaker 1: that kept her going and what literally helped her survive
Speaker 1: was tiny acts of kindness and that's where this stems from.
Speaker 1: And she does go into that, and she gets into
Speaker 1: some specifics and I'm sure you're gonna cry like we cried.
Speaker 1: You almost can't help it. There is absolutely no human
Speaker 1: that can listen to Cath's speak and not be affected. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think the big take home around this is
Speaker 1: not just about kindness, but this idea of gratitude and being,
Speaker 1: you know, like for somebody who's been through so much
Speaker 1: in her life, Cath still has so much gratitude for
Speaker 1: the life that she's lived. There are some very big,
Speaker 1: big topics that we touch on in this episode. We
Speaker 1: do touch on suicide. So if that's something that is
Speaker 1: affecting you, or if this is something that you know
Speaker 1: is too troubling for you to listen to, please maybe
Speaker 1: come back to this episode at another time. But overall,
Speaker 1: this is a truly uplifting conversations So I just hope
Speaker 1: for so many of you that you get something really,
Speaker 1: really wonderful out of it. Before we get into the
Speaker 1: episode with Kat, we do have a couple of things
Speaker 1: we want to talk about now Christmas is coming. This
Speaker 1: is one hundred thousand percent not an advertisement, but Goop.
Speaker 1: You know how much we love Goop. Goop is Gwyneth
Speaker 1: Paltrow's I guess it's her online company. It's her website
Speaker 1: where she advertises the weird and the wonderful of the world.
Speaker 1: She gives you gift ideas, she gives you her favorite items,
Speaker 1: and I'm not kidding. It brings me the most hilarity
Speaker 1: and entertainment of any other website in the world. And
Speaker 1: it's not supposed to it's not. It's the thing. This
Speaker 1: is not a satirical website, but it turns out maybe
Speaker 1: it is in disguise. Well, she's released a Christmas list.
Speaker 1: She does it every year, twenty twenty one Christmas List.
Speaker 1: There's gift ideas and there are some real bangers on there.
Speaker 1: So Laura, I wanted to know what would you purchase
Speaker 1: from this list? Like you've had a look at the list?
Speaker 1: Is there anything on this list that you would actually purchase?
Speaker 1: This is like the Goop Christmas List. We talk about
Speaker 1: it every year. It's the gift that keeps on giving,
Speaker 1: or it's the gift that truly gives nothing, because I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody can afford anything that's on there. Well, no,
Speaker 1: usually people can afford like a candle, a vagina candle
Speaker 1: or something like that. But even that, the vagina candle's
Speaker 1: quite expensive. Yeah, and you might remember last year there
Speaker 1: was a candle which was like the vagina scented candle,
Speaker 1: which truly wasn't it smelled like flowers.
Speaker 2: I mean, my.
Speaker 1: Vagina doesn't smell apparently, Gwyneth Paltrows vagina smells like flowers.
Speaker 1: This year there is a candle which is an orgasm
Speaker 1: candle smells like an orgasm, which is one hundred dollars. Well,
Speaker 1: what does your orgasm smell like one hundred dollars? In
Speaker 1: a while, you're like, I forget would it smell like
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars because it costs The orgasm cannle costs
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars, Like, I'm not paying people to make.
Speaker 1: I am tempted to purchase the orgasm candle purely for
Speaker 1: research for market research. I want to know what orgasm
Speaker 1: smells like because I think, I mean, like, sex has
Speaker 1: a smell, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Speaker 1: It's like sweating is in a bedroom that has no
Speaker 1: fresh air? Like what is what does sex and an
Speaker 1: orgasm smell like? I know what your orgasm smell like?
Speaker 1: Smells like coconut oil because that's what you use. Smells
Speaker 1: like tennis. My Look, I want to just quickly go
Speaker 1: through a few things on the list that I think
Speaker 1: are absolutely ridiculous. Now, I don't like Gwenneth Poultry very much,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it's purely because of her
Speaker 1: ridiculous recommendations that every year I like a little bit less.
Speaker 1: But she has advertised a jungle gym for your children. Look,
Speaker 1: that's a bit of a controversial and a big sweeping
Speaker 1: statement for someone you don't like. She's a bit it's unrelatable,
Speaker 1: might be the world. Well, I mean like, no, not
Speaker 1: that I don't hate her, but she's not in any aspect.
Speaker 1: I don't love her as an actress. I don't love
Speaker 1: her recommendations that like, I just she's not my cup
Speaker 1: of tea. She's recommended a jungle gym for your kiddos
Speaker 1: if you need to go and purchase something for them
Speaker 1: this Christmas. The only catch is it's gold plated and
Speaker 1: it costs you fifty two thousand dollars. Wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: nice to have that much money? Though? Who who is
Speaker 1: buying that? Who is buying that fifty thousand dollars jungle?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this jungle gym. It has two monkey
Speaker 1: bar rings. That's it, just the two one ladder, one swing,
Speaker 1: and one slide that looks about two point two feet.
Speaker 1: That's it. I'm sorry, but I definitely want to know
Speaker 1: besides the Kardashians, who is buying this jungle gym. So
Speaker 1: I like that. The thing that upsets you the most
Speaker 1: is how limiting it is. You like, there's only two
Speaker 1: rings and one slide. Well, I would think for fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars four in minimum. The other one that I
Speaker 1: had a really big problem with. I don't want to
Speaker 1: say a problem. I don't have a problem with it,
Speaker 1: but I'm never going to buy it, and I think
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous. Is a snow sled like a toboggan? Like
Speaker 1: it's it's a circular sled, it's toboggan in style. It's black.
Speaker 1: If it's one person and it has the Chanelle symbol
Speaker 1: on it, it's a Chanel toboggan. Now what would you
Speaker 1: pay for a Chanel round, circular, one person toboggan? Is
Speaker 1: it a child toboggan or an adult toboggan? I can't
Speaker 1: be sure. I think it's interchangeable. I can't afford anything
Speaker 1: from Chanell because I have a borgage. Now I can't
Speaker 1: afford anything ever. Again, I'm gonna say two thousand dollars
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand dollars, fourteen thousand. Now I'm looking at this.
Speaker 1: I have used one of these many a time, but
Speaker 1: I just use It's a bodyboard that I got from
Speaker 1: Big w It was twenty five dollars. Bodyboard does just
Speaker 1: the trick the same thing as this fourteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: Chanel Toboggan does. You're taking a bodyboard to the snow.
Speaker 1: It's like it's a snow to box. So I used
Speaker 1: to go down there. We used to have these really
Speaker 1: big grass hills in Port McQuay. Anyone from Port McQuary
Speaker 1: will know what we're talking about, and we used to
Speaker 1: get used to run up really fast when I had
Speaker 1: been raining slightly and on your bodyboard and you would
Speaker 1: like scoot down the grass hill. Amazing. I'm from Woollongong
Speaker 1: and we just used to use cardboard boxes. The couple
Speaker 1: boxes get wet. The very last one I want to
Speaker 1: check in is extremely affordable. It's eighteen dollars, except it's
Speaker 1: not affordable when you hear about what it actually is.
Speaker 1: So you got to remember this is a wellness site.
Speaker 1: It's all around taking better care of your health, you know,
Speaker 1: spending lots of money to make your skin beautiful, make
Speaker 1: your vagina smell good, and make it, yeah, make your
Speaker 1: house smell like an orgasm. This is eighteen dollars eighty
Speaker 1: for Leopard printed rolling papers so that you can smoke
Speaker 1: your Ciggy's in style on the wellness side. The thing
Speaker 1: that bothers me, I know I said before that something
Speaker 1: bothers me about Gwyneth Paltrow. I think the thing that
Speaker 1: bothers me the most is that I asked Jordan when
Speaker 1: we met. We just had that one conversation where you're like,
Speaker 1: who's your hall pass? His fucking hall pass is Gwyneth Paltrow.
Speaker 1: Now it makes sense, so Britty, you're just jealous. No,
Speaker 1: I've never liked her, and I've never liked her, and
Speaker 1: I'm and now I probably like her, but I don't
Speaker 1: get it. I'm like Gwyneth Paltrow and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean his other one is Sharon Stone. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: you've got a thing for older women obviously, which is
Speaker 1: probably why this relationship works Sharon Stone and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Speaker 1: They are his hall passes, so I don't get it.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's seeing. But he can go
Speaker 1: and buy vagina candle from Gwyneth Pultrow if he wants.
Speaker 1: Have you ever though, received or given a present for Christmas?
Speaker 1: I guess not just Christmas, maybe birthdays whatever, something that
Speaker 1: could have been on this list, or something that you've
Speaker 1: opened and just been like, what the actual fuck? So
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this. There's nothing that really jumped out.
Speaker 1: But I did get given and this was very recently,
Speaker 1: which is why came to mind. I did get given
Speaker 1: a box of extremely expensive champagne as a present from
Speaker 1: a friend, and I opened it up weeks after she
Speaker 1: had given it to me, and there was a empty
Speaker 1: packet you know, the oral bee tooth whitening strips. It was.
Speaker 1: There was an empty oral bee teeth whitening strips inside
Speaker 1: like she'd already used. I'm pretty sure it was like
Speaker 1: an old bottle of champagne that she had been given
Speaker 1: that was sitting in the cupboard like it was in
Speaker 1: the box, and it had fallen down the side slap
Speaker 1: of the box. And when I opened, it was just
Speaker 1: half an empty oral be I mean, maybe she just
Speaker 1: thought you wanted a drink and you needed to whiten
Speaker 1: your teeth.
Speaker 3: Who knows.
Speaker 1: No, there were no teeth whitening strips in there. It
Speaker 1: was just the packet. It was just the rubbish of
Speaker 1: the teeth whitening strips inside wedge down next to the
Speaker 1: expensive bottle of sit. We don't know that. I'm not
Speaker 1: opposed to a regift. I am not. I found it
Speaker 1: in my path. If you guys listened to my story
Speaker 1: last Christmas, I had a Kris Kringle, like a twenty
Speaker 1: dollars present that's supposed to be anonymous. I had to
Speaker 1: give it. I had to someone in my family. Was
Speaker 1: my family Christmas present. Someone in my family messaged me
Speaker 1: and said, I forgot Actually I'm just going to call
Speaker 1: her out. It was my sister, Sherry Shery. She forgot
Speaker 1: to get her Chris Kringle a present. Right, She's like,
Speaker 1: I forgot to get my person's present. I left it
Speaker 1: at home. Can you bring me something? So I was like,
Speaker 1: just about to leave to this Christmas party. So I'm
Speaker 1: looking around my house and I saw some lip bosses
Speaker 1: that I had been gifted. I was like, well, that's
Speaker 1: going to have to do because I'm not going to
Speaker 1: the store right now. I've got to be at this
Speaker 1: Christmas party in twenty minutes. I grabbed these lip glosses,
Speaker 1: put them in a bag that someone else had already
Speaker 1: given me, gave them to my sister to give to
Speaker 1: the for the Chris Kringle. Long story short, I didn't
Speaker 1: look properly and when the person opened the present, they
Speaker 1: were like, Brittany, is this from you? And I was like, no,
Speaker 1: what do you mean because it's anonymous. I gave her
Speaker 1: a lip gloss that had my name embroidered in it.
Speaker 1: I said, like for Brittany. Basically, she was like, I
Speaker 1: know this was you. It's got your name, and I
Speaker 1: nearly fucking died. I was like, I've never been more embarrassed.
Speaker 1: About twenty five people are looking at me being like
Speaker 1: you little stinge. I was like. I looked at Sheridan
Speaker 1: and I was like, you better dig me out of
Speaker 1: this hole right now. But she said nothing, So I've
Speaker 1: just added her on the podcast. Anyway. I want to
Speaker 1: know who, Like, for everyone listening to this, I want
Speaker 1: to know the shittiest present you've ever been given. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do a little segment on an upcoming episode coming
Speaker 1: into Christmas, getting into that festive spirit. I want to know,
Speaker 1: what is the worst thing you have ever been given
Speaker 1: as a present?
Speaker 3: No more.
Speaker 1: One thing he just t my ex boyfriend from when
Speaker 1: I was like twenty one years old. I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: He's like, this is the worst Christmas present I've ever gotten.
Speaker 1: I gave him a box of it was like a
Speaker 1: hot stone massage kid, but I gave it to him
Speaker 1: so he could massage me with the hotstones. He's like,
Speaker 1: this is officially the worst present I've ever had.
Speaker 2: I was like, shut up and rub me.
Speaker 1: Let's get into some accidentally unfiltered. I have an absolute
Speaker 1: cracker for you guys today. It's disgusting, it's funny. It's
Speaker 1: all the things a good accidentally unfiltered should be. You
Speaker 1: know how every couple has weird things that they do
Speaker 1: with each other, and if anyone else saw or found out,
Speaker 1: they'd probably think, well, that's fucked up. Well something I'm doing.
Speaker 1: To my point, we all, okay, I am not judging
Speaker 1: this because I think we all have that one thing
Speaker 1: that's a bit fucking weird. But you know, we just
Speaker 1: don't tell anyone about it. Anyway, these people are cooked
Speaker 1: and they've got a weird thing, all right. Well, something
Speaker 1: I do to my boyfriend is that anytime if we're
Speaker 1: just chilling, or maybe if we're watching TV or we're cooking,
Speaker 1: and I get a rush of wetness, you know, like
Speaker 1: as in I feel a little bit horny and I'm
Speaker 1: a bit wet down there, I'll put my finger down
Speaker 1: there and then I'll just rub it on him, just
Speaker 1: to show him what's happening. Sometimes it impresses him, sometimes
Speaker 1: it excites him. Sometimes he's like, oh, not now, which
Speaker 1: is totally valid. Anyway, this morning, we were laying in bed,
Speaker 1: chatting and cuddling when all of a sudden, I felt
Speaker 1: a trickle of wetness. So I put my finger down
Speaker 1: there and smeared it on his arm. Unfortunately, when I
Speaker 1: looked up at his arm, I realized that it wasn't
Speaker 1: me being wet, and it was blood. My eyes shot
Speaker 1: open and I couldn't stop gasping and laughing in the
Speaker 1: utter horror. I was speechless. I rubbed my period blood
Speaker 1: my boyfriend. He's so rank. Did the boyfriend knows her sleep?
Speaker 3: He knew.
Speaker 1: I was just watching and she's like, I can never
Speaker 1: come back from there. It's so ranked and I think
Speaker 1: you need to stop wiping your period and you come
Speaker 1: on your boyfriend he's in bed. Okay, I have a question.
Speaker 1: Is it called come if it's your like female, like,
Speaker 1: if you've got a bit of discharge, is it called come? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's still come? Really Yes, I didn't know this. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean I think so. I think that's what people
Speaker 1: would refer to it as. Really yeah, okay, I discharge
Speaker 1: doesn't have the same sexy room to it. I'm discharging.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm discharging, you know, like I feel like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess the girl I'm coming. Yeah, okay, I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we unpacked that. I'm glad that I had to
Speaker 1: give you an example. Well, I'm like, I'm coming is
Speaker 1: like I'm orgasming. I don't mean as in like I'm
Speaker 1: getting wet.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think people would still use the word come. I
Speaker 1: could be there'd be people that wouldn't, but I would.
Speaker 1: I still associate, And it's probably a more technical term,
Speaker 1: of course there is. It is discharged.
Speaker 2: That's what it is.
Speaker 1: But I'm never gonna say, oh feel my discharge Like
Speaker 1: that term is never coming out of my mouth. Also
Speaker 1: would never say like my wetness either film how Moistno,
Speaker 1: I hate that word. All right, give me if you're
Speaker 1: an accidently unfiltered or if you got a confessional I
Speaker 1: haven't accidentally unfiltered that it's pretty innocent, but it's very
Speaker 1: fucking money. I feel like after that one, we probably
Speaker 1: need to be way better than you're, like, way more
Speaker 1: inpercent than yours. It's way better. It's way more innocent, Hey, chicks.
Speaker 1: This ties into the great standing while wiping debate of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. I was at work in the cubicle
Speaker 1: closest to the window. Now, the window is outside the
Speaker 1: cubicle door, but it's ceiling height. It's very very big,
Speaker 1: and we work on a very high floor, so there's
Speaker 1: actually no chance of anyone being able to see in.
Speaker 1: So I was mid stand up wipe, because well, I'm
Speaker 1: a standard. When I see something in my periphery, I
Speaker 1: turn my head and I see the fucking window cleaner
Speaker 1: hanging from the top of the building. He's come straight
Speaker 1: past the bathroom window and he's made direct eye contact
Speaker 1: with me over the cubicle door. As I am armed
Speaker 1: deep midwipe standing. I'm like a deery headlights as they
Speaker 1: slowly wash the windows around me. It hasn't put me
Speaker 1: off stand up wiping, but I definitely don't go into
Speaker 1: the side cubicle anymore. How humiliating. Imagine the window cleaner
Speaker 1: because he can't we probably can't get away fast enough,
Speaker 1: so he's swung down eye contact while she's wiping herself,
Speaker 1: mid wee, mid stand on his around ankles, like I
Speaker 1: just can't imagine that feeling of like what do we
Speaker 1: do right now? Do I look away? Do you look away?
Speaker 1: And he just kept cleaning the window. He was just
Speaker 1: like wax on wax off. I think I think that
Speaker 1: there's an added element of humiliation when you're a stand
Speaker 1: up wiper, Like if you're sitting wiping, I think that
Speaker 1: that's less humiliating than standing up and making eye contact
Speaker 1: at the same time. One hundred percent. I think you
Speaker 1: need to learn to sit down. I feel like this
Speaker 1: has been a really educational start of this episode. Do
Speaker 1: you know what before we get into the chat we cath,
Speaker 1: we just have a quick call out that we want
Speaker 1: to This is usk asking you for your help, for
Speaker 1: your love for your dedication to the podcast. We do
Speaker 1: do this once a year. You guys might remember that
Speaker 1: last year the Podcast Awards came out and we asked
Speaker 1: you to go and vote for the Listener's Choice. Well
Speaker 1: it has come around really quick this year and the
Speaker 1: Listener's Choice Awards are back there open and currently they're
Speaker 1: taking votes for your favorite podcast. And if you love
Speaker 1: listening to Life on Cut and you're part of the
Speaker 1: Life on Cut family, if you are a lifer, honestly,
Speaker 1: we would be so forever grateful if you would jump
Speaker 1: onto the Podcast Awards website it's Australian Podcast Awards and
Speaker 1: go and vote in the Listener's Choice and put in
Speaker 1: Life on Cut because that's us, and give us your vote.
Speaker 1: It would just mean so much to us. So all
Speaker 1: the other categories are judged by a panel of judges,
Speaker 1: but the Listener's Choice is exactly that. The only way
Speaker 1: that you can win it is by having you, guys,
Speaker 1: the listeners vote, So it only takes you two seconds
Speaker 1: and we would bloody love you if you could take
Speaker 1: the time to jump on and vote, ask your friend
Speaker 1: to vote. If you've got a UNI email, don't be
Speaker 1: scared to go use that as well. She can use
Speaker 1: MOLTI please create burner accounts votes. If you've got burners,
Speaker 1: use them. We'll put all the details in the show
Speaker 1: notes and we'll probably ask you again next week. Anyway, guys,
Speaker 1: let's get into the chat with Kath. We hope that
Speaker 1: you love this as much as we did. She's truly
Speaker 1: truly an inspiration and for anybody who wants to be
Speaker 1: a part of well Kindness Day. We will put all
Speaker 1: the information about that in the show notes as well. So, Kath,
Speaker 1: welcome to Life on Card. We're so excited to have
Speaker 1: you today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm stoped to be here. Thanks for having me
Speaker 2: and thanks for.
Speaker 1: Coming all the way across Sydney to our little home studio. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it's not anything flash for you.
Speaker 2: I think it's perfect. I love it.
Speaker 1: Before we get into telling your story, we want to
Speaker 1: start the way we start every interview, and that is
Speaker 1: with your accidentally unfiltered, your.
Speaker 2: Most embarrassing story. It's a great way to break the ice. Well,
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm just on a brain skin. There's
Speaker 2: so many to pick from. This could take up the
Speaker 2: entire podcast. Now, a good one that my friends love
Speaker 2: actually sounds really we kind of wanky, but I'm motivational speaker,
Speaker 2: so to my day job and we'll get into waget
Speaker 2: a really unique story. But I was in the US.
Speaker 2: I got invited to a pretty exclusive event in the US,
Speaker 2: and I didn't really know what it was about the
Speaker 2: way that the woman had explained it to me was
Speaker 2: that it brought together the world's most powerful and influential
Speaker 2: people and brands, and to me, it sounded like a cult.
Speaker 2: And I was a little bit apprehensive, Actually I should
Speaker 2: do this event, but they said that'd fly me and
Speaker 2: my assistant. I didn't have one at the time, so
Speaker 2: my best friend got a junket to the US with me,
Speaker 2: first class, all this kind of stuff, and bells should
Speaker 2: have started ringing at this moment when I'm sipping champagne
Speaker 2: in first class and all that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 2: I got to this event and we're having a sound
Speaker 2: check the day before, and again things should have been
Speaker 2: making sense. The screens were bigger than any house I
Speaker 2: lived in, and I looked like an aunt as a
Speaker 2: four thousand strong audience it was going to be the
Speaker 2: next day because all these seats were there, and I
Speaker 2: was like, okay. The brief that I got were these
Speaker 2: people have everything they could ever want and need, So
Speaker 2: you just bring humility, So bring yourself humble them. I
Speaker 2: can do that. And they said to me, so how
Speaker 2: long have I got for this talk? And they said,
Speaker 2: you've got eight minutes? And I said, wow, that's a
Speaker 2: big story to fit into eight and I normally get
Speaker 2: forty five. Any chance I could have fifteen just in
Speaker 2: the prep and they said, look the Dalla Lama and
Speaker 2: it gets twelve.
Speaker 1: So and I thought they were joking.
Speaker 2: I thought they were joking.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, good one.
Speaker 2: I guess eight will do. And so I get there
Speaker 2: the next day and I'm in the green room and
Speaker 2: the lily snacks and I love snack. This is woman
Speaker 2: sitting there like an African American woman, black woman, beautiful, stunning,
Speaker 2: and I was like, gee, she looks familiar. And I said,
Speaker 2: good a. I'm Kath and she said, Kath, really nice
Speaker 2: to meet. I'm Michelle. And I was like, awesome.
Speaker 1: Fuck.
Speaker 2: I was like she's so beautiful, and I go, it's
Speaker 2: really nice to meet you. And she said yeah. Likewise,
Speaker 2: what are you doing back here? And I said, I'm
Speaker 2: speaking today, I'm opening the whole conference. She said what
Speaker 2: are you going to talk about? I said, well, I
Speaker 2: guess my life story, but essentially kindness. She said's one
Speaker 2: of my most favorite things to hear about and to
Speaker 2: learn about it. I was like, oh, that's truly lovely.
Speaker 2: I said what are you doing? And she said, I'm
Speaker 2: on after you. And I was like, what are you
Speaker 2: talking about? And she said, oh, this is twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: And she goes and I don't watch TV or anything
Speaker 2: like that, and she says, I'm going to talk about
Speaker 2: the Me Too movement and I said, wow, I've heard
Speaker 2: about that and she said, I'm sure you have. There.
Speaker 2: So she's sitting there and she goes. She goes, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go out the front. You mind if
Speaker 2: I watch I'm going to leave you here. I'd really
Speaker 2: like to listen to it you're going to talk about.
Speaker 2: And I said, of course, Like I said, I'll do
Speaker 2: the same. This is the finish, I'll run around like
Speaker 2: I really want to hear what you got to say.
Speaker 2: And I was like, what a wonderful woman. So I
Speaker 2: sweat starts. I'm like where am I like, what's going on?
Speaker 2: I get out and I'm two minutes into the eight
Speaker 2: that I've got start sort of, you know, sharing everything's
Speaker 2: gone really really well, and then I look off center
Speaker 2: on stage to the right, and I was like everything
Speaker 2: just started to make sense, just sitting next to her husband,
Speaker 2: Barack Obama, and I'm like, and I just go, holy fuck,
Speaker 2: that was Michelle Obama. What the fuck did I say?
Speaker 2: Did I swear? Oh my god? Oh my god? And
Speaker 2: I was like, where am I? And I looked to
Speaker 2: the left and it's the da La Lama, I see
Speaker 2: you've read and yellow all like the who's.
Speaker 1: Of the Wells in this room.
Speaker 2: And I just shout myself like this, like the sweat
Speaker 2: was dripping off me, and I nearly ruined the whole thing,
Speaker 2: and I was just like, so I finished the talk
Speaker 2: and had to apologize to her for basically saying I'm
Speaker 2: a fucking idiot. I'm so sorry. I didn't know like,
Speaker 2: of course I know who you are, like, of course
Speaker 2: it I just like I was so nervous, and she's like,
Speaker 2: it's fine, I loved your story. I got this like
Speaker 2: standing ovation and everyone's like on me. But I was like,
Speaker 2: holy shit, how has this happened? And yeah, my parents
Speaker 2: hate me for that, so like, how if you should
Speaker 2: have bowing down to this person.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I didn't really think so, But
Speaker 1: she one hundred percent would have loved the fact, because
Speaker 1: she would have thought you knew who she was and
Speaker 1: just didn't care or didn't clock it. She would have
Speaker 1: loved that you treated.
Speaker 2: Her like normal.
Speaker 1: But I think this is so fucking At least you
Speaker 1: didn't say you look familia. At least she didn't ask
Speaker 1: her what she did for a job.
Speaker 2: I was like, she's Dutch. I was like, she's stunning,
Speaker 2: Like she's she's so beautiful when she's got the runaway
Speaker 2: says like people like that have an aura, but she
Speaker 2: genuine I've never really experienced itting. I'm like, this woman
Speaker 2: is stunning and her voice and all that, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: she did look for me. I'm like, maybe it's just
Speaker 2: because she's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Like, have I seen you on a commercial the next
Speaker 1: commercial summer? I just love how unassuming this is that
Speaker 1: You're like even at the point where you're standing there
Speaker 1: on a stage and it's a thirty thousand audience and
Speaker 1: you're like, well, this has got a bit at it.
Speaker 1: This escalated quickly, didn't it. How did you not know?
Speaker 1: I can't even my face the whole time you're telling
Speaker 1: that story was like, mouth open in shore. Did you
Speaker 1: get to meet Barak?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I did, Barack, Barrack Barack. I don't know. Did you
Speaker 1: get to meet here?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I called him mister president. I think that was.
Speaker 1: Only if you're singing happy birthday. I want to be good.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm like, I'm actually still. As the story
Speaker 1: was unraveling, I was like, where is this gonna go?
Speaker 1: I didn't know you were about to say that the
Speaker 1: name when you were like she was really, I was like, fuck, farmer,
Speaker 1: this feeds any getting drunk and passing out in the
Speaker 1: Gutta story that you were also tossing up to tell.
Speaker 1: Let me just say that, Kav. I want to get
Speaker 1: into a bit more of your like what makes you you? Like,
Speaker 1: where did you come from? Where did you grow up?
Speaker 1: What was your childhood?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about that time in your life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm the youngest of four kids, so I got
Speaker 2: a really big family and three older brothers. So I
Speaker 2: guess that's where I say, can get my nature from.
Speaker 2: And I guess the grittiness and the resilience that I've had,
Speaker 2: Like we had to fight at the dinner table for
Speaker 2: food and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I'm one of four. I feel you we had
Speaker 1: to fight to the death for a food.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was important, right, Yeah, surviv will die. Like
Speaker 2: my family from a really tiny country town. I was
Speaker 2: actually back there last week for a family funeral unfortunately,
Speaker 2: but called Finley in regional New South Wales, so it's
Speaker 2: like population fifteen hundred and I love it, like it's
Speaker 2: like my favorite holiday destination now just because you can
Speaker 2: switch off you don't get phone reception. There's like one
Speaker 2: part in town in the main drag where you get
Speaker 2: phone reception and stuff. But I feel like it really
Speaker 2: set me up for life. Finley. It's a really special
Speaker 2: place how I describe it, because well, what's it like there?
Speaker 2: And when I was back there last week, I noticed
Speaker 2: that the advertising at the hotel motel is one of
Speaker 2: them advertised they're dragging to get you in there, is
Speaker 2: that they have color TV.
Speaker 3: Sign me up.
Speaker 2: So that's how I Yeah, people are like, oh, I
Speaker 2: get it now, like it's probably one of those yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's everything to me. It's it really feels like
Speaker 2: home and really proud to have family roots there for sure.
Speaker 2: So yeah, no, for me, it was just sport, like
Speaker 2: with three elder brothers and in a place like Finlan
Speaker 2: and all that kind of stuff, there's not really that
Speaker 2: much to do. I've never really been big on TV
Speaker 2: or anything like that, so it was just always running
Speaker 2: around playing some kind of sport as a kid and
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff. But I think being the
Speaker 2: only girl, you know, Mum wanted a girl. She had
Speaker 2: three boys all that kind of stuff, and so I
Speaker 2: was supposed to be the you know, the princess and
Speaker 2: the ballet dancer and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But she's like, can I return this? This is not
Speaker 1: what I ordered. Yeah, I'm pretty.
Speaker 2: Sure I broke her heart. Like I you know, from four,
Speaker 2: they timed me out for ballet and tap and all that,
Speaker 2: and I just hated it, like I'd just make every
Speaker 2: excuse to go to the bathroom or do something like
Speaker 2: that and just wish that I was playing cricket in
Speaker 2: the backyard with my brothers and stuff. And then when
Speaker 2: I was eight, I sort of grew the courage to
Speaker 2: tell Mom, look, I don't think this is for me anymore.
Speaker 2: I think I told Dad actually, because he was just like, yep,
Speaker 2: cricket get her in there. Yeah, he saw me like
Speaker 2: playing against my brothers and he was like, she's actually
Speaker 2: quite good at this. So trading in the ballet slippers
Speaker 2: for cricket spike and fell in love with the game.
Speaker 2: So I was just a normal happy kid. Hey, Like
Speaker 2: I didn't have any kind of trouble growing up, Like
Speaker 2: bullying was never present in my life. I was amongst
Speaker 2: high school kids and stuff like that just floated amongst everyone,
Speaker 2: school captain and all that kind of stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I just love love life. I still do love life,
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just had a really genuinely, really cool childhood.
Speaker 1: The cricket is a really big part of your story.
Speaker 1: If anyone's listening now saying, why are we talking about
Speaker 1: the sports so much? Because you were a rising cricket star,
Speaker 1: you were very good, You were on your way to
Speaker 1: being top of your game, and that unfortunately was cut
Speaker 1: short by an accident. Can you tell us about that
Speaker 1: and what happened.
Speaker 2: I was that person that just had to really work
Speaker 2: hard at everything that they earned or achieved and things
Speaker 2: like that. So I was never naturally gifted. I was
Speaker 2: okay enough, but all the coaches said, you're probably not
Speaker 2: going to make it to the level that you're aspiring to.
Speaker 2: I wanted to play for Australia, do all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, and I just had to grind and work
Speaker 2: hard on my fitness and do all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: And I got handed my chance in twenty eleven to
Speaker 2: play for New South Wales. I've been over in the UK,
Speaker 2: played for them, sorry Middlesex over there, and then the yeah,
Speaker 2: the phone come calling and they said, look, we're ready
Speaker 2: to pick you, so come back. All that kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: so come back. And I've been training really really hard,
Speaker 2: and I've noticed a bit of pain in my left
Speaker 2: glute and some numbness in my left hoe my left
Speaker 2: big toe, and I went to the physio and she
Speaker 2: was a little bit more alarmed and I was like, look,
Speaker 2: currently feel my big toe and she was just like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's a bit of an issue. And in those sorts
Speaker 2: of sports environment there's no privacy, so your teammates always
Speaker 2: around you when you're naked and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: and getting undressed for the physio all that, and so
Speaker 2: everyone's like, what do you mean you can't feel your
Speaker 2: big to I was like, I don't know, like it
Speaker 2: just can't feel it like Lane, that's it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So they scanned up and I realized that I had
Speaker 2: a prolapse disc in my spine, so nothing, you know,
Speaker 2: it was you know, serious, but not too severe, they
Speaker 2: sort of said to me, and they said, look, we
Speaker 2: can try some quarterzone injections, but basically you're up for selection.
Speaker 2: Been going really really well, like I had a great
Speaker 2: debut all that kind of stuff, and they said, look,
Speaker 2: it's up to you. It's fifty fifet when I'm going
Speaker 2: to rule you out. But you need to know the
Speaker 2: risks associated with playing. And so I said, okay, well
Speaker 2: of coursing on a pit because this is what I've
Speaker 2: dreamt of since I was like a little girl, since
Speaker 2: I was eight. And so I played and no regrets.
Speaker 2: But essentially in the next game that I played, the
Speaker 2: disc that was prolapsed in my spine, it come up
Speaker 2: that quickly that the two vertebrae had nowhere to go,
Speaker 2: and they cracked onto each other, and part of the
Speaker 2: bottom vertebrae cracked off and embedded itself straight into my
Speaker 2: spinal cord.
Speaker 1: So, oh my god.
Speaker 2: In the game, yeah, I was twenty three, and immediately
Speaker 2: you know that sensation that had in my big toe
Speaker 2: was both legs, blow the waist, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: So raced off to hospital and started scanning up and
Speaker 2: was raced into some surgery and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: and then five unsuccessful surgeries and they said, mate, like,
Speaker 2: not only is this stream just gone, but you're never
Speaker 2: going to walk again life in a wheelchair. Like the
Speaker 2: damage is really severe. So really confronting, said like, I'd
Speaker 2: built an identity around being able to hit a ball
Speaker 2: around the park, and so relationships and love and all
Speaker 2: that sort of thing, I guess was on the back.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, just had this situation where I was like,
Speaker 2: all of this has now been taken away from me.
Speaker 1: Who am I? What do I do?
Speaker 2: All that kind of stuff? And one doctor, my doctor,
Speaker 2: so he said, look, there's this new age technique that
Speaker 2: they're doing with spinal surgeries at the moment, all spines
Speaker 2: at the moment. It's from the US. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of people doing it there, but it's very new to hear.
Speaker 2: There's one surgeon that does it. It's in the Gold Coast.
Speaker 2: So we've got to get you there to have this surgery.
Speaker 2: But it's going to give you the best chance, so
Speaker 2: I can't guarantee it, but you should take it. And so,
Speaker 2: of course, like not really thinking there was any alternative,
Speaker 2: which there wasn't really apart from just resigning myself to
Speaker 2: the fact that it was life in a wheelchair, off
Speaker 2: I went and I had that surgery. The difference between
Speaker 2: that one and others is so invasive. Normally they'd cut
Speaker 2: through your back and access your spine that way, and
Speaker 2: this one they cut through the stomach and they you know,
Speaker 2: shift your entire stomach so vital logans or get pushed
Speaker 2: aside and they access the spine that way. So yeah,
Speaker 2: really big one, and you sort of, you know, afterwards
Speaker 2: feeling quite groggy and a lot of pain because of that.
Speaker 2: But they line the vertebrae with titanium reinforcement, put like
Speaker 2: a ball and socket joint in there, I guess the
Speaker 2: idea is, and they sort of like put a casing
Speaker 2: around it, and the idea is that you'd get a
Speaker 2: lot more mobility with that ball and socket.
Speaker 1: At the time when you opted to have this really
Speaker 1: invasive surgery, was it with the hopes that you'd be
Speaker 1: able to go back to cricket or was it just
Speaker 1: with the hopes that you would be able to gain
Speaker 1: full use of your legs and be walking again. Where
Speaker 1: were you at in your own processing and at this
Speaker 1: point were you not walking? Were you better? Yeap? So
Speaker 1: that was already there was no movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's a really decent question, a really good
Speaker 2: one that not many people are asked, because for me,
Speaker 2: I was always getting back on the park like that
Speaker 2: was never a thing, like it was never never once
Speaker 2: did my thought presssess say you're not going to play
Speaker 2: cricket again, whereas everyone else was like, just try and
Speaker 2: walk like or just anything like. But everyone else, I
Speaker 2: think believe that it would never get there and that's okay,
Speaker 2: like no drama. But I think for me the intention
Speaker 2: was I'll get through this, it's okay. And I guess
Speaker 2: because the injury happened and it was like surgery, surgery, surgery,
Speaker 2: and you sort of get stuck in this vortex of
Speaker 2: just I just need to get through today and then
Speaker 2: I'll be okay, and then I'll get through tomorrow and
Speaker 2: then I've got the surgery coming up and hopefully that
Speaker 2: fixes it and all that kind of stuff. But it's
Speaker 2: a huge surgery. Threw four centimeters in that surgery, so
Speaker 2: my bmile mess immediately improves and I'm like, sick, this
Speaker 2: is awesome. The wunder you wake up feeling the way
Speaker 2: that you do, Like I was like the world is end,
Speaker 2: Like it felt like the world was ending when I
Speaker 2: woke up from that surgery. The pain that I was
Speaker 2: in my body was horrific. And I've been through a
Speaker 2: lot of injuries and a lot of pain and stuff,
Speaker 2: and I remember, you get to ask the pains go
Speaker 2: it was your pain out of ten and for me,
Speaker 2: like to say eight is excruciating. And I was like,
Speaker 2: it's a seven and she was just like, I think
Speaker 2: that's a ten. I'm pumper with like like all these
Speaker 2: drugs and stuff, and so it was intense. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'd never want to watch a YouTube having been through it.
Speaker 2: I don't think I want to watch what that surgical
Speaker 2: interventions like. I mean, the pain that I felt, I
Speaker 2: can I can understand it'd be pretty pretty full.
Speaker 1: On afterd this surgery was that when you were told
Speaker 1: that you may need to have an amputation, is that
Speaker 1: when there was some more complications.
Speaker 2: Not immediately, So basically you know I'm in the Gold
Speaker 2: Coast that happens. You lie there for two weeks in traction.
Speaker 2: That's when all the head noise started for me. Like
Speaker 2: I've never I'd never up until that point, experience any
Speaker 2: sort of form of mental ill health. As I said,
Speaker 2: I had a great childhood and just never really, you know,
Speaker 2: I've been lucky enough to be blessed with the brain
Speaker 2: that doesn't work that way immediately. And so yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: lying there for traction, and I just start thinking, Wow,
Speaker 2: is this I mean, so much pain, and you know,
Speaker 2: so many drugs gone through my system.
Speaker 1: I'm really groggy.
Speaker 2: I can't get clear in my thinking process. And everyone
Speaker 2: kept saying, you know, it's two weeks and then you
Speaker 2: might take your first steps, we can't guarantee it, and
Speaker 2: all this kind of stuff. I'm like, well, we lie
Speaker 2: because I mean so much pain. Is this going to
Speaker 2: be worth it? And all that? And so two weeks later,
Speaker 2: I get out of bed and I've got all these
Speaker 2: like early male nurses and stuff underneath me. Helped me
Speaker 2: to walk and I only took two steps that day,
Speaker 2: but I still couldn't feel anything. The day after that,
Speaker 2: I took four, and you know, I spent the next
Speaker 2: sort of six weeks in the Gold Coast, my stomach
Speaker 2: wound healing and doing all that kind of stuff until
Speaker 2: they like medically cleared me to fly back home to
Speaker 2: Sydney I was living at that point in time, and
Speaker 2: then finish the rehab processes and outpatient here, so like
Speaker 2: go and keep keep your activities up and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. And at this point it's like deemed
Speaker 2: a miracle because you know those Canadian crutches, the one
Speaker 2: that we like wrap around, I was walking with them,
Speaker 2: so I looked like I was doing very very well,
Speaker 2: and I was. I started to regain feeling in my
Speaker 2: right leg, which was amazing. Left was a little bit
Speaker 2: far behind, but it was getting and you could sense that.
Speaker 2: And then I woke up one morning due to be
Speaker 2: at rehab, like just a routine sort of thing with
Speaker 2: the injury I was going through. And you know when
Speaker 2: you like sat down too long, could be at work
Speaker 2: or you know wherever you are watching Netflix still and whatever,
Speaker 2: and your arms are in that bent position you can't
Speaker 2: move them, yeah, and you're like, shit, my arm's and
Speaker 2: I'm like I'll shake it out and get the pins
Speaker 2: and needles and all that. It was like that it's
Speaker 2: like five o'clock in the morning. But my entire left leg,
Speaker 2: it was just really heavy, and I was like, what's
Speaker 2: going on here? So I thought it must have slept
Speaker 2: in a funny position. So I tried to like maneuver
Speaker 2: myself in bed, and nothing really happened. Like two minutes later,
Speaker 2: I'm still sort of waiting for it to wake up,
Speaker 2: and I'll never forget it. I flick on my bedside
Speaker 2: table lighte and I look under the cover and my
Speaker 2: entire left leg was just blue, like a who's kind
Speaker 2: of color.
Speaker 1: Just no blood was getting to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you didn't know that. I didn't know that
Speaker 2: because you don't feel it. Yeah. So I pick up
Speaker 2: my leg, couldn't move it, pick it up, put it
Speaker 2: to the side of my bed, face planted, And this
Speaker 2: part of the story it will resonate with you. I
Speaker 2: crawled myself into the bathroom and I sat on the toilet,
Speaker 2: and I had no idea if I was using the bathroom,
Speaker 2: and my surgeons it all said to me, with an
Speaker 2: injury like yours, if that happens, if your blood or
Speaker 2: bow'll start to shut down, that's life threatening, and you
Speaker 2: get straight to an emergency room, and so I thought, okay,
Speaker 2: I can't wuck around here. So I had flatmates, and
Speaker 2: being the stubborn creature that I am, I didn't ask
Speaker 2: any of them for help. I crawled past them to
Speaker 2: my car.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, cat. If there's ever a time to
Speaker 1: say hey, someone help me is when you're crawling to
Speaker 1: drag yourself to a hospital.
Speaker 2: Just earlier. My thought process was like, I need to
Speaker 2: get to a hospital, but also I can't wake the marp,
Speaker 2: but it's too early. So I crawled myself out to
Speaker 2: a car and I drove an auto and I had
Speaker 2: a right leg that was working, and put myself into
Speaker 2: the car and started driving towards what I thought would
Speaker 2: be rehab. And called my doctor on the way and
Speaker 2: picked up and he said, what's going on? I said, look,
Speaker 2: here's how I woke up this morning, and he said,
Speaker 2: bypass rehard met me straight at RPA Royal Prince Alfred
Speaker 2: Hospital in Sydney. So I get there, are parking emergency
Speaker 2: bay and I crawled myself into the emergency room and
Speaker 2: they're like, man, what on earth are you doing? And
Speaker 2: I said, look, he's what my life's looked like. The
Speaker 2: last kind of you know three months. And so I
Speaker 2: woke up this morning and they put me in a
Speaker 2: wheelchair and I get into that consult room till about
Speaker 2: a half a day's worth of testing. And again, I'll
Speaker 2: never forget this moment. E They're like, all the doctors
Speaker 2: are sort of outside of my room, and I could
Speaker 2: tell there was something going on that was big, and
Speaker 2: they were looking in and I try and look at
Speaker 2: their eyes or lippre what they were saying and hear
Speaker 2: what they were saying, and every time they'd catch my gaze,
Speaker 2: they'd look away. It couldn't really look me in the eye.
Speaker 2: And I was like, shit, I don't think it's going
Speaker 2: to be good news. And yeah, one doctor walks in,
Speaker 2: my doctor and he just sort of said, look, Kath,
Speaker 2: I'm afraid the news isn't great. We're going to amputate
Speaker 2: your leg. And I just sat there and completely disbelief,
Speaker 2: going what I said so many words. Probably we've already
Speaker 2: dropped a few f bombs up because I am all on,
Speaker 2: but yeah, like all this stuff just starts going through
Speaker 2: my head. What on earth is going on? I didn't
Speaker 2: know this was a risk for me, all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. And I called my brother. The funniest part
Speaker 2: about this is he was a butcher at the time,
Speaker 2: and they're going to amputate my leg and that was
Speaker 2: really we found that really funny in the moment.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad you found very dark. It's very hey.
Speaker 1: If that's how you handle it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just had to sort of yeah. So he
Speaker 2: just started asking all the questions that I you know,
Speaker 2: the shock that I was in, I didn't think to ask,
Speaker 2: and so basically I just like explained this to me
Speaker 2: because I don't really understand it. And they said, well,
Speaker 2: anyone with normal, healthy legs, depending on where they're sitting, running, walking, crawling,
Speaker 2: whatever is that doing, they've got a normal blood pressure
Speaker 2: anywhere between ninety and one hundred percent. Anything blow twenty
Speaker 2: percent is dire, and anything blow ten percent is dead.
Speaker 2: And I said where am I and they said, well,
Speaker 2: you were at seven percent at one point this morning.
Speaker 2: I said, wow, so it's dead and they said that's
Speaker 2: why it's turned blue. But it is fluctuating. And I said, well,
Speaker 2: is that what we call hope? And they sort of
Speaker 2: giggled at me and they said, mate, this is serious,
Speaker 2: and I said, yeah, I appreciate that, but no one's
Speaker 2: ever told me that I was at risk of having
Speaker 2: my leg amputated. Like, I don't have anything against I
Speaker 2: live with a disability now, I don't have anything against that.
Speaker 2: It's just I didn't know this was it's a able.
Speaker 2: So I say, can you give me a chance at
Speaker 2: just keeping it, Like, just give me a shot, just
Speaker 2: prescribe me something, a drug appeal, whatever it is. They said, well,
Speaker 2: we can't really figure it out. We don't really know
Speaker 2: what's going on, but we think it's a blood flow issue,
Speaker 2: so exercise could help. And I was like, oh cool,
Speaker 2: I'm an athlete and I had to do that. So
Speaker 2: what's my deadline all that kind of stuff. And they said, well,
Speaker 2: we'll give you two weeks. You need to go to
Speaker 2: hospital or rehab every morning, get it tested. If it
Speaker 2: drops below ten again, it's gone on the spot. But
Speaker 2: essentially if you can get it above twenty percent by
Speaker 2: this time, like two weeks, then we might be able
Speaker 2: to work with that. So my next two weeks looks
Speaker 2: like this. I'd get up at like four in the morning,
Speaker 2: have Brecky, go to hospital or rehab, have it tested
Speaker 2: with the help of their sort of physios and practitioners
Speaker 2: get it moving in any way that could. And again
Speaker 2: I was walking with those Canadian crutches and said I
Speaker 2: wasn't walking. I was hopping on my right leg I could,
Speaker 2: or my left literally dragged half meter behind me. So
Speaker 2: the shoes are all worn down and scuffed and really
Speaker 2: confronting to see and go back home, have more brecky,
Speaker 2: go to the local gym. There's some stuff there that
Speaker 2: I could do. Go back home, have lunch, go back
Speaker 2: to the local gym, and anyone that knew my struggle
Speaker 2: would sort of help me, because it was really hard
Speaker 2: to keep it moving and I couldn't really sleep because
Speaker 2: of the stress and anxiety. So I'd get up at
Speaker 2: like two in the morning, and I had a twenty
Speaker 2: four hours past the city cricket ground where I was
Speaker 2: a contracted athlete. I'd go there just to get my
Speaker 2: leg moving at two in the morning, and the security guards,
Speaker 2: because it's man twenty four hours a day, they'd notice
Speaker 2: the lights on and rather than coming down and kicking
Speaker 2: me out, like they probably very within their right to do,
Speaker 2: they said, so what are you doing here? A's two
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning. And I explained my situation and
Speaker 2: as I said, rather than kicking me out, hit Bobby,
Speaker 2: this older guy who always seemed to draw the short shore,
Speaker 2: and that two week period of that night shift would
Speaker 2: literally get electrical tape and he'd strap my left leg
Speaker 2: into a spin bike or a cross trainer, go back
Speaker 2: to his post, come back and unstrap me, and then
Speaker 2: help me with an machine. And it was the first
Speaker 2: time in my life that I really understood recognize the
Speaker 2: power of kindness right like this guy.
Speaker 1: Actually, I've tried not to just like tears Roy, I
Speaker 1: love Bobby.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bobby, he's past, bless his soul, but he was
Speaker 2: just such a wonderful man. And those moments are so
Speaker 2: powerful and I just and this is my mission now
Speaker 2: in life, is to if you have the opportunity to
Speaker 2: help someone in times like that, please do it because
Speaker 2: it means so much to a person when they're in
Speaker 2: a struggle. Moments like that have definitely saved my life
Speaker 2: and they are so powerful. And yeah, I just think
Speaker 2: those moments are so important to surviving in times of adversity,
Speaker 2: but also to thriving in life as well. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll progress the story. It gets to the day before
Speaker 2: you to be amputated, and I know that we've sort
Speaker 2: of alluded to dark humor, and my family very much
Speaker 2: rely on that to get through, and having supported me
Speaker 2: through many moments, have gotten there as well. It was
Speaker 2: to no avail, so I couldn't get above twenty percent,
Speaker 2: and I thought all these efforts were gone, and my
Speaker 2: pair parents decided they wanted to have a barbecue on
Speaker 2: Sunday before the Monday that I was going to have
Speaker 2: this amputation, and my brother legitimately put together this invitation
Speaker 2: and send it to my closest friends and family, and
Speaker 2: it simply read, you're invited cuts last day with two
Speaker 2: legs barbecue.
Speaker 1: We're having a farewell. Oh my god, stop it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I actually love that. I love that because there's there's
Speaker 1: so much that can be done with humor, and it
Speaker 1: really does help so many situations. And if that's what
Speaker 1: helps to you, guys, like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and it's so funny. And I wet
Speaker 2: myself and I was like this, this is great, but
Speaker 2: in all seriousness to have those people like my closest
Speaker 2: friends and family around me, I just I was just like,
Speaker 2: it's okay, I'll be a leg less the next day.
Speaker 2: But I've got so much love around me, so much
Speaker 2: support and all that kind of stuff. Not looking forward
Speaker 2: to it by any stretch, but I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be okay, Like it's okay. But yeah, when I
Speaker 2: was staying at Mum and Dad's that night, they're going
Speaker 2: to take me into the surgery the next day and
Speaker 2: wrap their arms around me and all that. And I
Speaker 2: don't really remember this part of the story, but dud
Speaker 2: tells it really well. Woke up at sort of three
Speaker 2: in the more feeling pretty crooked and collapsed unconsciously onto
Speaker 2: the floor, went to use the bathroom or something, and
Speaker 2: it woke that up, the thud on the floor. So
Speaker 2: picked me up, put me into the car, took me
Speaker 2: this innery or a hospital, made an entire body scan,
Speaker 2: and realized that I've been bleeding internally from the stomach wound.
Speaker 2: So basically, the surgeon had very accidentally and very slightly
Speaker 2: nicked the federal artery that ran into my left leg.
Speaker 1: So that's why that was the problem. That's why you
Speaker 1: went the blood supply. Yeah, you must have had a clot.
Speaker 1: When you were telling this story, I thought you must
Speaker 1: have had a clot in your left federal artery.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he basically nicked it was so mini skill
Speaker 2: and I'd lost all her weight throughout my recovery, and
Speaker 2: so the blood was sort of pulling in this pocket
Speaker 2: in my stomach. Almost couldn't see it to the naked
Speaker 2: eye and the nerve damage in my spinal cord injury.
Speaker 2: From my spinal cord injury, it just wouldn't carry the
Speaker 2: limited supply of blood into that left leg. And so
Speaker 2: raised off emergency surgery again, and three hours later, I
Speaker 2: wake up really groggy. I just start feeling around is
Speaker 2: it attached? Like is my leg still there? And everyone
Speaker 2: was like, you know, the surgeons like made it. It's
Speaker 2: still attached. It's okay, lightsop pain, but you're not out
Speaker 2: of the woods. To keep it attached and to keep
Speaker 2: it healthy, you need to go to rehab. And if
Speaker 2: you ever want the chance of walking again, that's going
Speaker 2: to look like six to twelve months. And I've never
Speaker 2: really heard of rehab for that long or you know,
Speaker 2: in that way or anything like that. And so they said,
Speaker 2: you know, pack up your life, quit your job, cricket's gone,
Speaker 2: like all that kind of stuff, Off you go, And
Speaker 2: so I just didn't really see any other options. So
Speaker 2: off to rehab I went. And you know, after recovering
Speaker 2: from that surgery obviously, and it was such a confronting
Speaker 2: experience for me. I was I was twenty three at
Speaker 2: the time, and you know, you feel so adult when
Speaker 2: you're that age, and I wasn't. I was just a kid.
Speaker 1: Basically, what was your mental health like at this point
Speaker 1: in time when your identity has changed so much so quickly,
Speaker 1: and you at each point are thinking, Oh, I'm going
Speaker 1: to get better and this is going to be okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to get back to doing the thing
Speaker 1: that I love, which was my identity. Yeah, how are
Speaker 1: you not just physically, but how are you emotionally and
Speaker 1: mentally at that point in time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think like the decline in my mental health
Speaker 2: happened a little bit later, and again I think it
Speaker 2: was just literally and I feel like probably the last
Speaker 2: ten years of my life, because there've been so many
Speaker 2: roadblocks and big challenges and as well as some really
Speaker 2: amazing moments as well, I just felt like I was
Speaker 2: constantly coming up for air. So at that point, again,
Speaker 2: still very probably naive, and I think I was protected
Speaker 2: because of my support network as well, and the fact
Speaker 2: that I was never predisposed to mental real health probably
Speaker 2: helped me in that phase. So it wasn't too bad. Again,
Speaker 2: I just had this belief that I was going to
Speaker 2: be okay. And I don't know where that comes from
Speaker 2: or why. Again, just probably luck in my upbringing and
Speaker 2: things like that, But it wasn't too bad at that
Speaker 2: point in time. Certainly, when I first got there, I
Speaker 2: was putting the wrong ward. I was twenty three and
Speaker 2: I got put in the geriatric ward and beds in
Speaker 2: the water. I was supposed to be, and so I
Speaker 2: had three categories. The over sixty fives, you over seventy fives,
Speaker 2: and they over eighty fives, and they were always at
Speaker 2: twenty three. They put me with eighty five year olds,
Speaker 2: and I was.
Speaker 1: Like hanging out with Daryl. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: As I said, I was twenty three. I've always been
Speaker 2: a pretty decent person and cared about others, but really
Speaker 2: the other thing I'd ever cared about was cricket, and
Speaker 2: here I am surrounded by these geriatric patients who taught
Speaker 2: me so much about life and perspective. I had, you know,
Speaker 2: an eighty five year old war veteran who had bullet
Speaker 2: holes in his back, and he told me all these stories,
Speaker 2: confronting stories about hardship, and I was like, Jesus, this
Speaker 2: is adversity, like not breaking your back, like really dying
Speaker 2: on the warfront. Like wow, this puts my struggle into perspective.
Speaker 2: And my best friend actually from rehab was an eighty
Speaker 2: five year old woman, Daisy. Daisy wasn't actually her name was.
Speaker 2: It was irs. I called her Daisy because she called
Speaker 2: me Alice. She still has her granddaughter. Oh, so like
Speaker 2: warmed and broke my heart at the same time. But yeah,
Speaker 2: she had dementia and had suffered a stroke and all that.
Speaker 2: So every day I'd take her a cup of tea,
Speaker 2: had to thicken it with an agent so she didn't
Speaker 2: catch pneumonia. And she just told me stories that were
Speaker 2: the most amazing stories. I don't think any of them
Speaker 2: were true, but that were phenomenal stories that really made
Speaker 2: my time a little bit more bearable. But that was
Speaker 2: the reality of my life at that moment. I just
Speaker 2: had to find friendship in the most extraordinary faces and ways,
Speaker 2: And yeah, I loved it. I learned so much as
Speaker 2: a result of those guys. But you know, you referred
Speaker 2: to some mental health. What was it like? I remember
Speaker 2: a week into my stay there and the reality just
Speaker 2: hit me like a ton of bricks and just had
Speaker 2: tears running down my face. I was like, how on
Speaker 2: earth I've gotten through my first week? And it was horrific.
Speaker 2: How on earth am I going to get through six
Speaker 2: to twelve months of this?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: How is that possible? And I called my best friend
Speaker 2: and this story it really highlights the importance of human
Speaker 2: connection to me. I said, look, you got to come
Speaker 2: and pick me up. And she's like, Cauth, I'm a
Speaker 2: little bit confused. You're in rehab. We know that six
Speaker 2: to twelve months all that kind of stuff, So I
Speaker 2: know if they cut my leg off, that's okay. I
Speaker 2: just can't stay in this environment much longer. And she said, mate,
Speaker 2: this has breaking me to see you like this. You're
Speaker 2: my best friend. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you.
Speaker 2: I can't do this for you. I wish I could,
Speaker 2: because I'd take it away if I could, but I can't,
Speaker 2: and she goes, what I can do is I can
Speaker 2: tell you that I believe in you, and I know
Speaker 2: that you've got this. I've seen you do hard things
Speaker 2: and I know that you can get through this, and
Speaker 2: she said, I won't come pick you up, I'll come
Speaker 2: visit and I'll walk this journey metaphorically. So I buy
Speaker 2: side with you. You've got this, and please know that
Speaker 2: I've leave in you. And I think that tough love.
Speaker 2: Really it gave me that sense of belief where I
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, if she believes in me, then then
Speaker 2: I need to believe in myself as well. I've got this,
Speaker 2: and so I just then committed myself to the process.
Speaker 2: It was, you know, go from bed to chair, chair
Speaker 2: to frame, frame to stick, six to stick and then
Speaker 2: you're on your way, and much harder in reality when
Speaker 2: you're you know, everyone's telling it you're not going to
Speaker 2: do it and all that kind of stuff. I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: see how we go. I'll give it a go today
Speaker 2: and all that kind of stuff. So it was tough,
Speaker 2: and my luck changed in a really good way though
Speaker 2: about a month into my stay when I met something
Speaker 2: so much grander than anything that I experienced before, in
Speaker 2: meeting who was going to be the love of my life.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I ended up meeting a fellow patient. His
Speaker 2: name was Jim Rugby league player or semi professional rugby
Speaker 2: league player an injury spine, not doing rugby of all things.
Speaker 2: That was the tough matter obstacle race. So he was
Speaker 2: doing that probably shouldn't have with contractual sort of things.
Speaker 2: And it's on that I don't really I've never really
Speaker 2: seen it, but I must have been like a monkey
Speaker 2: bar kind of challenge. And someone had gone to early
Speaker 2: and pushed into his back and he fell awkwardly from
Speaker 2: a pretty great height and broken his back too. So
Speaker 2: he lands himself in rehab and being surrounded by you
Speaker 2: know Daisy or not Daisy, but Iris as well as
Speaker 2: you know war Vester into our love. They're you know,
Speaker 2: still great friends and stuff. But you know, it was
Speaker 2: really refreshing to see someone of like mind, age ability,
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff enter And I thought it
Speaker 2: was quite cute and all that kind of stuff, and
Speaker 2: so it was like, well, when I got here, it
Speaker 2: would have been really nice to have someone show me
Speaker 2: the ropes and show me just all the things you
Speaker 2: need to know in a new environment. It's like I've
Speaker 2: taken upon myself to be that person for him so
Speaker 2: that he can lean on me. It's really confronting when
Speaker 2: you get there all that kind of stuff and.
Speaker 1: To get in there before Daisy does yeah.
Speaker 2: Of his mind, yeah, I think, well she was, she
Speaker 2: was right in there, she was nudging me. She's like,
Speaker 2: you know, just started off as friends and just enjoyed
Speaker 2: each other's company, and very quickly, and much to my surprise,
Speaker 2: we fell in love, which was just so special. I mean,
Speaker 2: who finds love in a rehab center? It sounds so
Speaker 2: funny to even say. Thankfully it wasn't drugging alcohol rehab.
Speaker 2: But I guess the thing that made our time bearable
Speaker 2: in rehab was because we really didn't like that environment.
Speaker 2: It was let's stream a life that exists once we're finished,
Speaker 2: and that's almost the reward, right, So what does life
Speaker 2: look like? So our dreams were like they were amazing,
Speaker 2: And think back on this time right now with so
Speaker 2: much adoration, and it still warms my heart to think
Speaker 2: about it. So for us, it was four kids, three
Speaker 2: boys and a girl, just like my family, the house
Speaker 2: in Broad Border on the Gold Coast, which is where
Speaker 2: he was from originally, pet turtles, the dog, all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff, and we dreamt so often to make
Speaker 2: that time bearable. And there were dreams that I'd never
Speaker 2: dreamt before or dared to dream with anyone before, because
Speaker 2: all I ever cared about was was cricket. And I
Speaker 2: remember three months into our relationship, you know, in that
Speaker 2: kind of phase where you like, this person is perfect,
Speaker 2: like could never and he's still perfect to me. But
Speaker 2: I remember three months in going I am so grateful
Speaker 2: that I broke my back, Like I'm so grateful, and
Speaker 2: that so sounds so confronting to hear that, right, but
Speaker 2: I was like, if I didn't, I wouldn't have met
Speaker 2: this person who's everything to me now. And I just
Speaker 2: the life that we'd been dreaming, that we were dreaming
Speaker 2: was so special to me, and we're just like young
Speaker 2: kids in love, like sort of long walks on the beach,
Speaker 2: we did wheelchair races in the corridor and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And was he a quadriplegic paraplegic or was he just
Speaker 1: not able to walk?
Speaker 2: Like what we were very similar to me so para
Speaker 2: but had he had a better prognosis than what I did,
Speaker 2: and you know, his recovery was pretty phenomenal as well.
Speaker 2: Like we were both people who I guess had that
Speaker 2: never say it just the athletic kind of background and
Speaker 2: things like that when we both entered rehabit in wheelchairs
Speaker 2: but progressed, you know, within three months to be out
Speaker 2: of those and still had a lot of work to
Speaker 2: do to get back to normality. But both really really
Speaker 2: gritty in I guess our determination to want a better
Speaker 2: life for both of us, so strong mindset and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff as well.
Speaker 1: And to put this into perspective, just for a time
Speaker 1: frame from your injury until this point in time, what's
Speaker 1: the time period that has passed.
Speaker 2: The initial injury. Yeah, it would have been about six
Speaker 2: months I reckon from Yeah, initial injury for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're in love, and what you were just
Speaker 1: saying is for you to say, I was actually grateful
Speaker 1: that I break my back. Love is a really powerful thing,
Speaker 1: Like there is no better feeling in the world than
Speaker 1: having someone love you unconditionally and you love someone back.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's a testament from what you
Speaker 1: just said, the fact that I'm grateful to be here
Speaker 1: and I'm sure he was too. So how long were
Speaker 1: you two together in rehab and how did that end
Speaker 1: in terms of did one of you get out first?
Speaker 2: So we're together twelve months. I was basically at that
Speaker 2: point considering outpatient. So I lasted about eight months an
Speaker 2: in house patient at the rehab center and then progressed
Speaker 2: onto outpatient. What that means is you just there three
Speaker 2: mornings a week, say, getting checked up and continuing the
Speaker 2: process and getting better. But you can then go home
Speaker 2: and be in your home environment or at work or
Speaker 2: wherever it is that you're doing, and live some sort
Speaker 2: of so almost like a transition into normal life. Jim
Speaker 2: had a day to go before he was to be
Speaker 2: considered that kind of patient. Just put the lease on
Speaker 2: the house together, and all these dreams that we've been dreaming,
Speaker 2: we're about to come true the very next day. So yeah,
Speaker 2: he was probably three months behind me, but his injuries were,
Speaker 2: you know, three months after mine as well.
Speaker 1: And at this point, like we're here to talk about
Speaker 1: the kindness Factory, and there are so many challenging things
Speaker 1: that have happened in your life that have contributed to
Speaker 1: you creating the kindness factory. And you would think that
Speaker 1: after going through this process of breaking your back, that
Speaker 1: that was the life that you were creating was on
Speaker 1: the way up. Now, that's what you had everything to
Speaker 1: look forward to. But that's not where your story ends.
Speaker 2: No, no, it's not so that night, so he was
Speaker 2: due to bid released on the fourteenth of November, and
Speaker 2: the day before his release of the thirteenth of November
Speaker 2: in twenty twelve, he passed away. So suicide and just,
Speaker 2: oh god, it's nearly the anniversary and it just it
Speaker 2: crushed me beyond belief. Still to nine years later, and
Speaker 2: it's so hard. It's God, I love him still still
Speaker 2: to this day. He's just so perfect to me. You know,
Speaker 2: no one's perfect, but to me, he was just everything.
Speaker 1: And oh shit, you're looking at it. We're just crying
Speaker 1: looking at you that cav Just you're I mean, you're
Speaker 1: honestly sitting here. You are one of the most positive
Speaker 1: people we have spoken to. The way that you tell
Speaker 1: your stories and the way that you honor him in
Speaker 1: what you have created is truly truly beautiful. But just
Speaker 1: talk me through this period when you have gone through
Speaker 1: having your back shattered to them, losing the love of
Speaker 1: your life. Did you know that he was struggling in
Speaker 1: this way? Did you know that this was something he'd
Speaker 1: been considering.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't, And it's so interesting. My life story
Speaker 2: gets put in shining lights and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: and you get one life and you live it through
Speaker 2: the lens that you get. And I wouldn't change my
Speaker 2: life or my experiences for anything, because I'm proud of
Speaker 2: the person that I am and the people that have
Speaker 2: come on my journey, and some are here still to
Speaker 2: this day and others aren't. They've shaped me into the perth.
Speaker 2: There's this saying it's I don't even know if I
Speaker 2: made it up or not, but it's, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: little pieces of everyone that I've met. Did Jim. I
Speaker 2: cherish most of the parts that are his, that exists
Speaker 2: within me, and as you said, the legacy that's now
Speaker 2: being created, it's not even me, it's definitely him. He's
Speaker 2: at the forefront of everything that I do, and no,
Speaker 2: I didn't see it coming. And the grief that happened
Speaker 2: after he's passing, it's still torturous and I still live
Speaker 2: with challenges of that every single day and reminders of that.
Speaker 2: And for so long I held on to this thing
Speaker 2: that he'd given me so much as in you know,
Speaker 2: I was never faced with the thought of suicide ideation
Speaker 2: throughout my rehab period, but he definitely helped me throughout
Speaker 2: the struggle of rehab, and I just kept thinking, well,
Speaker 2: did I not help him? And it was never was
Speaker 2: I not enough? I have to believe that our relationship
Speaker 2: was as beautiful as it exists within my heart now,
Speaker 2: and I'm definitely not thinking otherwise at all. Ever. I
Speaker 2: just felt so much empathy for him in that, you know,
Speaker 2: was he struggling and I didn't see it? And I
Speaker 2: wish he just had told me, because I opened up
Speaker 2: to him a lot and saying I'm really struggling today
Speaker 2: and I can't I don't want to go to this session,
Speaker 2: and he'd be like, come on, babe, We've got this,
Speaker 2: like it's all good. And I love him more because
Speaker 2: of his struggle, which is so hard to say because
Speaker 2: he's not here anymore. But he was just so beautiful
Speaker 2: on the inside and out, and yeah, I just I
Speaker 2: couldn't love him anymore if I tried.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was there any kind of explanation or do you
Speaker 1: think he just wasn't ready to face a life on
Speaker 1: the outside like starting again? Was he still not walking
Speaker 1: or where do you think its stemmed from? After he's done,
Speaker 1: he seems to have done all the hard work you
Speaker 1: would literally, like you said you'd sign at least you're
Speaker 1: one day away from your life. What do you think happened?
Speaker 2: I don't know, and I think I've heard from a
Speaker 2: lot of I think we're called survivors of suicide, you know,
Speaker 2: when someone very close is passed away in that way,
Speaker 2: and there's so many different responses and it's such a
Speaker 2: relative experience, and I think it's such a personal experience.
Speaker 2: For Jim, it was so inexplicable. He was never going
Speaker 2: to be the guy that did that, Like Jim was
Speaker 2: never going to be the guy that did that, and
Speaker 2: so many stories out there like that, right, you know, smiling, depression,
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff. He didn't have an existing
Speaker 2: mental health condition, he didn't see to be struggling. There
Speaker 2: was support available, all those sorts of things, but there
Speaker 2: was so much going on for him that I'm still
Speaker 2: learning about today. That still just gives me so much
Speaker 2: empathy for him and his struggle and all those sorts
Speaker 2: of things. And I think, even individually for both of us,
Speaker 2: we never know what another person is truly thinking, right,
Speaker 2: Like we can think that we do and we can
Speaker 2: say that this person is my everything and I know
Speaker 2: everything about them, but we all have little secrets like
Speaker 2: I do. I haven't told a lot of people certain
Speaker 2: parts about my life and things like that, and that's
Speaker 2: just because they're our own. And I don't think he
Speaker 2: wanted to share that outwardly with anyone. His mum and
Speaker 2: I were incredibly close, and she didn't see it. There
Speaker 2: was no warning sign or anything like that. His friends,
Speaker 2: you know, I feel like I just I exhausted them
Speaker 2: post his passing, just by calling them and going. But
Speaker 2: when that moment happened, could he have meant that? And
Speaker 2: it's like, well he could have, cath, but we don't know, mate,
Speaker 2: Like it's you know, and so I think he can
Speaker 2: run yourself into the ground, honestly, asking so many questions.
Speaker 2: All those photos that we've got together, are they and
Speaker 2: he's smiling in them? Does he mean that smile? Or
Speaker 2: was that moment a special to him as it was
Speaker 2: to me? And you rack your brain and you're never
Speaker 2: going to have the answers to that. For Jim, A
Speaker 2: lot of people say you must be angry, and I
Speaker 2: was like, absolutely not. Angry is not an emotion that
Speaker 2: I felt towards him, certainly at all. I felt a
Speaker 2: little bit of anger towards myself. You know, why did
Speaker 2: I not see that coming? And this is a fair
Speaker 2: while ago now, but no, it was If anything, I
Speaker 2: probably loved him more, not for any other reason than
Speaker 2: I just it was just so special.
Speaker 1: And yeah, how do you begin to heal from this?
Speaker 1: And I mean maybe you don't entirely, and maybe obviously
Speaker 1: that is where the kindest factory has come from. But
Speaker 1: what has contributed to you being able to overcome some
Speaker 1: of this and work through this?
Speaker 2: I'm still working through it now. You know, have recently
Speaker 2: re engaged with a psychologist and she's been wonderful and
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, and he's helping through other
Speaker 2: parts of that grief and trauma and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. But initially that wasn't the answer for me.
Speaker 2: I'm still not sure if it is today. I'm still
Speaker 2: trying to find my way. It's nine nine years later,
Speaker 2: but I lasted ten months after his passing just ignoring
Speaker 2: my grief and the trauma that I went through in
Speaker 2: his passing and all those sorts of things. And then
Speaker 2: it just hit me like a ton of bricks. So
Speaker 2: I had to go back to rehab for a routine
Speaker 2: sort of check up. I walked past his room and
Speaker 2: just all hit me and it just all come crashing down,
Speaker 2: and I ended up going to the Gold Coast. Where
Speaker 2: would you just start this life together? I reconnected with
Speaker 2: his mom and all that kind of stuff, who I'd ignored,
Speaker 2: and she was such since passed, but she was such
Speaker 2: a wonderful woman. And then I felt so guilty for
Speaker 2: ignoring her, like, you know, she's lost her son and
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, and I just kept owning
Speaker 2: all this responsibility of it all, and I needed to
Speaker 2: let that go. And I think I'll always still feel
Speaker 2: a little bit responsible to work in progress. I think
Speaker 2: life is as well. But I went to the Gold
Speaker 2: Coast and I spent three weeks there just at that
Speaker 2: rock bottom, you know, like first I lose this stream
Speaker 2: of playing cricket, and then I lose the person who
Speaker 2: taught me there was so much more to life than cricket.
Speaker 2: And halfway through this three week period, I'm sat in
Speaker 2: Wendy was Jim's mum's name. I'm sat in her place,
Speaker 2: and on the coffee table was a piece of paper
Speaker 2: and a pen. I don't know why it was there
Speaker 2: or what compelled me to do what I did, but
Speaker 2: I just had that kind of moment where I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I just started reflecting on a lot of things, and
Speaker 2: I picked up the pen and I just started writing.
Speaker 2: All these names kept and faces kept popping into my mind,
Speaker 2: and they were just names and faces of people who
Speaker 2: had helped me or shown up for me in my life.
Speaker 2: And I just started writing their names down.
Speaker 1: On this list.
Speaker 2: And it was a full shit at paper, like thirty
Speaker 2: names on it at the end. And then I don't
Speaker 2: know why I did it, but I'm so glad that
Speaker 2: it happened, because it really sort of, I guess, springboarded
Speaker 2: me into this next phase of life. I picked up
Speaker 2: my phone. I just started calling every person on this list.
Speaker 2: The first was like my doctor and he must have
Speaker 2: seen my name flash up on the screen and he's
Speaker 2: picked up at me and going, oh my god, what
Speaker 2: have you done? What have you broken?
Speaker 1: How do I help you to the hospital again? Please
Speaker 1: say Carl.
Speaker 2: I was like, no, Doc, that's not why i'm calling.
Speaker 2: It's I'm just calling and say thanks, like I don't
Speaker 2: think i'd be here without you, and you've had a
Speaker 2: huge impact on my life. Thank you for that. And
Speaker 2: he just went pardon, it's just like, Ca, you don't
Speaker 2: have to thank me, it's my job. And I was
Speaker 2: just like, well, I wanted to. So he said, look,
Speaker 2: before you hang up, I just I'm so glad to
Speaker 2: hear from you, to know that you're okay and you're
Speaker 2: going to be okay, and I'm really proud of you.
Speaker 2: And I said thanks, dork and hung up, and I
Speaker 2: just started calling all these people, family friends, anyone who
Speaker 2: had really shown up for me, and same response. Everyone
Speaker 2: was like, mate, I'm really stoked to hear that you're okay.
Speaker 2: And I was like, thanks, like, I think everything's going
Speaker 2: to be okay, guys, Like, I've got so many good
Speaker 2: people in my life, and I think that's why I'm
Speaker 2: so positive, Like people have always had belief in me,
Speaker 2: and I'm internally driven by the goodness of others and
Speaker 2: so them showing up for me always has shown so
Speaker 2: much faith. And yeah, I just I come back to
Speaker 2: Sydney after that, and I didn't know what life would
Speaker 2: look like. I didn't know who I wanted to be,
Speaker 2: you know, just because I was an athlete and I
Speaker 2: mean I had to be one and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff and yeah, cricket new stuff. Well, I was
Speaker 2: through my a lifeline in a sports admin job. And
Speaker 2: so I had this job then and I was going okay,
Speaker 2: Like physically I was I was pretty good too, And
Speaker 2: I got asked a lot of questions because everyone's like,
Speaker 2: holy moly, like twenty four and you've just been through
Speaker 2: these huge life hurdles. And a common question was like,
Speaker 2: if there's one thing that stands out, like, what is it?
Speaker 2: You know? No judgment, so good, bad, ugly, just say it.
Speaker 2: And I would always land on kindness, And I say kindness.
Speaker 2: It's not that, you know, interchangeable kindness with niceness. I
Speaker 2: think we need to differentiate the two of them, the
Speaker 2: strength in kindness and how I articulate that. When you've
Speaker 2: been in a wheelchair like I have been, and you
Speaker 2: can't reach a lift button and a random stranger walks
Speaker 2: past and they see that struggle and they press the
Speaker 2: button for you. It means absolutely nothing to their day,
Speaker 2: but it meant everything to yours because it allows you
Speaker 2: to get downstairs and do what you need to do
Speaker 2: or go where you need to go. Those moments matter,
Speaker 2: and we need to do more of it, not just
Speaker 2: when a person's in struggle. But you can't argue with
Speaker 2: kindness like it costs us nothing. Sometimes it's just a
Speaker 2: simple smile or a compliment someone or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2: But there is so much strength in kindness. Recently did
Speaker 2: study so engage a third party do research for us,
Speaker 2: and it was to study the impacts of kindness throughout
Speaker 2: the COVID pandemic. So arguably our most recent historical you know,
Speaker 2: adversity as a nation or the world really strange turned
Speaker 2: to kindness. So when we're in a struggle, we look
Speaker 2: for an opportunity to be kind and to receive kindness.
Speaker 2: It was connection with neighbors, or helping an able out,
Speaker 2: or giving someone a compliment, or calling someone and having
Speaker 2: a meaningful conversation and checking in on them, and all
Speaker 2: those sorts of things. And I'd encourage anyone as we
Speaker 2: re emerge. It's here, right, we're all starting to get
Speaker 2: out and about and stuff. If kindness is so powerful
Speaker 2: that we rely on it to survive, why not do
Speaker 2: it every single day that we're now opening up and
Speaker 2: doing all this kind of stuff. Let's not forget about it.
Speaker 2: It's so important. And I think anyone who's experienced the
Speaker 2: power of kindness think back. Everyone's received kindness everyone's given it.
Speaker 2: Think back to that time and how it made you feel.
Speaker 2: Let's just do more of it.
Speaker 1: So what is the kindness factory? What is it? What
Speaker 1: is it about? How do people get involved in it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so how it started was as I said, come
Speaker 2: back to Sydney and everyone's like, oh, you know, what's
Speaker 2: the one thing that stands out? And it was always kindness.
Speaker 2: So then I was like, well, hang on, if I'm
Speaker 2: telling people this, like, why an't I doing it? If
Speaker 2: I've received so much and it's on me, I'm well
Speaker 2: enough now to be able to do that. So I
Speaker 2: just started doing random things for people, like, I whatt
Speaker 2: a hairdresser dinner? One night, I just walk past the street,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go some dinner. Do you want Something's like?
Speaker 2: Parton this is So we had dinner. He's like, why
Speaker 2: are you doing this? I was like, oh, So I
Speaker 2: told him a bit about my stories, like holy shit,
Speaker 2: so this is a great dinner. And he's like, well, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to cut people's hair for free once a
Speaker 2: week now like and so he does that, and so
Speaker 2: it got quite catchy. Bought a random person you know,
Speaker 2: they're petrol and she had been through the most horrific
Speaker 2: stuff in life and she's now, you know, doing kind
Speaker 2: things as well. And so it was nothing more than that.
Speaker 2: And I had a great job and all of that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff, and I guess I launched it just
Speaker 2: on that fromis I just wanted to give back some
Speaker 2: of the kindness because I've experienced so much. And I
Speaker 2: launched it on Well Kindness Day, which is also Jim's anniversary,
Speaker 2: the thirteenth of novembery in twenty fifteen, so six years
Speaker 2: ago nearly. And it was never going to be anything
Speaker 2: apart from a side project and a bit of a
Speaker 2: social media page of goodness essentially, And what really exploded
Speaker 2: it was I guess that there was a bit more
Speaker 2: life adversity to follow. So three months into that journey,
Speaker 2: I was going really really well emotionally spiritually, you know,
Speaker 2: I'd raise all this money for charity and found purpose
Speaker 2: again through kindness, just doing things for other people. And
Speaker 2: that's how my life life made sense to me. And yeah,
Speaker 2: physically gone really really well. I went back to rehab
Speaker 2: throughout this period and just st a you know, they
Speaker 2: were like, we're ready to discharge you for life. Any
Speaker 2: questions before you do, and I said, I've got one question,
Speaker 2: miss Cricket. So it was part of who I am.
Speaker 2: I can't feel my left leg still, that's just something
Speaker 2: that will never come back. Now, I said, so I
Speaker 2: can't do that anymore because it's skills based. Anything else
Speaker 2: I could do And they said, oh, look, your recovery
Speaker 2: is based in a pool and on a bike. If
Speaker 2: you were to adding a run, you could be like
Speaker 2: a paratry athlete. Do you want to give that a go?
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, okay, So I signed up for
Speaker 2: a test. I loved it. It was great I could
Speaker 2: get into this. So ended up being the first passon
Speaker 2: with my disability to do a half iron Man, so
Speaker 2: it was a pretty big deal. I did in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: It was wonderful with my brother and did so well
Speaker 2: at that that I got to tick it into a
Speaker 2: full lirone Man, to be completed in May twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: and fittest I've ever been in my life. So a
Speaker 2: full line Man's a four k swim basically one hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty kilometer bike ride and a full marathon at
Speaker 2: the end forty two k.
Speaker 1: So and you've got one leg and this I couldn't
Speaker 1: do it too. Yeah, literally, and this is just full
Speaker 1: blown You're getting out there and.
Speaker 2: Do it, just doing it. Yeah, I just loved it,
Speaker 2: so yeah, I had that ticket to do it in
Speaker 2: Port McCrary May twenty sixteen and training's on track, fittest
Speaker 2: I have ever been in my life. And it's the
Speaker 2: tenth of January. With my two best mates. I was
Speaker 2: going to go from Cronulla on a bike ride to Manly,
Speaker 2: have Brecky and go back, so ninety kilometers nothing in
Speaker 2: the grand scheme of the training. And I get to
Speaker 2: the north side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and I
Speaker 2: start sort of getting towards a right hand turn lane
Speaker 2: to make my descend into the Northern beaches and just
Speaker 2: feel this start on my body and everything just goes black.
Speaker 2: I got hit by a drunk d diver from behind
Speaker 2: and broke back again.
Speaker 1: And broke your back where the surgery had been or
Speaker 1: in a different plane, no.
Speaker 2: All around that. So I both broke my back in
Speaker 2: four places, so thoracic, a little bit of lumber sacral.
Speaker 2: I dissicated my neck so c spine, broke my left
Speaker 2: hip so shattered, and broke my right wrist and then yeah,
Speaker 2: I woke up two weeks later to the news I
Speaker 2: was paralyzed and told them I'd never walk again, the
Speaker 2: second time in my life.
Speaker 1: So pretty down and out.
Speaker 2: You know, it was in a coma for a lengthy period.
Speaker 2: Mom and Dad had to make all sorts of tough
Speaker 2: decisions about life support, all that kind of stuff. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I wake up from that six weeks in ICU, fighting
Speaker 2: off infection, and it was horrific. The injuries were really substantial.
Speaker 2: And I woke up to all these texts and emails
Speaker 2: and inbox messages and whatever it may be where people
Speaker 2: had heard what had happened, and they just started writing
Speaker 2: to me, going, made, I'm so sorry about your accident,
Speaker 2: because if you wanted to let you know that today
Speaker 2: I made my neighbor's lawn, or I donated blood, or
Speaker 2: I tied my sister's shoes. So all these people sending
Speaker 2: me these acts of kindness because I recognized that I
Speaker 2: was no longer in a position to do what I
Speaker 2: was doing, and so they were like, well, I can
Speaker 2: do that, like and so it got quite catchy. And
Speaker 2: in that hospital bed, I spoke to the guy had
Speaker 2: sort of done our web website pro bono, and I said, look,
Speaker 2: let's flip it. I've got like hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 2: these acts off people, and it was almost impossible for
Speaker 2: me to have a bad day. Like I'm there facing
Speaker 2: a very lengthy rehab period again, everyone's telling me I'm
Speaker 2: not going to walk again, and I had to fight
Speaker 2: against that in my head every single day. And then
Speaker 2: hear all these people from all around the world just
Speaker 2: sending me acts of kindness and I was like, this
Speaker 2: is incredible, and again just couldn't Yeah, I couldn't really
Speaker 2: get out like that positive sort of thinking just kept
Speaker 2: hitting me because all these people. I was like, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm having a bad day, but like, look at all
Speaker 2: these people up to it was really cool. So yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's sort of how the Kindness Factory was born.
Speaker 2: I guess where it then become a people driven movement
Speaker 2: where people from all around the world just wanted to
Speaker 2: engage with kindness just because it was the right thing
Speaker 2: to do and all that kind of stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I spent six weeks in ICU and hospital and all that,
Speaker 2: and then I went on to rehab and walked and
Speaker 2: taught myself how to walk again. When everyone kept telling
Speaker 2: me I wouldn't. I got quite experimental with it as well.
Speaker 2: Not long after that accident, So maybe eight months after
Speaker 2: that accident, I was faced with a bit of a
Speaker 2: you know, an ethical dilemma or I had to face them,
Speaker 2: and it hit me with his car in court and
Speaker 2: it might be a story for another day unless we
Speaker 2: want to flesh it out. But what I realized through
Speaker 2: his behavior, which I can't change, was that kindness had
Speaker 2: saved my life once. Why couldn't it again? So I
Speaker 2: went on too social media, which gets so many bad
Speaker 2: wraps and for many good reasons, because sometimes it's really toxic.
Speaker 2: But when news for good, I think it can do
Speaker 2: a lot of good. And hopefully that's what kindness factually
Speaker 2: starting to do as well. I just went on. I said, look,
Speaker 2: I'm leaving my home with nothing but the clothes on
Speaker 2: my back on this day, at this time, no cash,
Speaker 2: no credit card, no food, no water, and I'm not
Speaker 2: going to accept help off immediate family or friends. I
Speaker 2: need to accept help only off strangers to feed me,
Speaker 2: to house me, to get me from A to B
Speaker 2: wherever this journey takes me. And ended up on news
Speaker 2: channels all around the world had ten thousand people reach
Speaker 2: out and say, look, oh help y'all, like come and yeah, why.
Speaker 1: I am shook. I'm shook to the core. Where were
Speaker 1: you at your in your recovery process at this time
Speaker 1: when you decided to go on this endeavor of I'm
Speaker 1: just going to go out on my own and figure
Speaker 1: it out and hope that people are good to me?
Speaker 1: Were you walking? Were you not?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Where were you in your recovery? I was walking, but
Speaker 2: I was still a long way off all the people
Speaker 2: that cared about me, Like, mane, this is a bad idea.
Speaker 1: You're going to hear someone's basement and you can you
Speaker 1: please just sit still?
Speaker 2: Like my dad was a cop for forty years. He
Speaker 2: put a GPS tracker on my backpack and he did. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I took a toothbrush with me and essential Yeah.
Speaker 1: How long I'm just I'm just cops back. How long
Speaker 1: did this journey over trained? You get from A to
Speaker 1: B with only the kindness of strangers? How long did
Speaker 1: it last? So we're talking a week? Are we talking
Speaker 1: two months?
Speaker 3: Fuck?
Speaker 1: So you just had a random Okay, let me get
Speaker 1: this straight. You've gone out. You're like, I've got my toothbrush,
Speaker 1: I've got my backpack. Someone write to me and tell
Speaker 1: me I'm in Sydney. Someone writes to me, and then
Speaker 1: someone would say come to my house. I'll come pick
Speaker 1: you up. Is that how it worked?
Speaker 2: Again? Like I sort of just maybe I'm too much
Speaker 2: of a visionary or a dream mark, but I just
Speaker 2: say stuff and then I'm like, I'll figure it out
Speaker 2: along the way. And so I was like, I'll put
Speaker 2: it out there and I'll go in a week. And
Speaker 2: so all these people then started sending stuff, and then
Speaker 2: I was on the news and all of that, and
Speaker 2: heaps of people started writing to me. And so I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, I've got all these offers, but how
Speaker 2: do I he assist together? Because I'm like, in one day,
Speaker 2: I've got an offer in Perth and the next day
Speaker 2: I've got an offer in Sydney and all that. And
Speaker 2: so I started trying to map it a little bit,
Speaker 2: and I was going to be a very structure route
Speaker 2: and I'm just not structured. So I was like, well this, no,
Speaker 2: I don't want to do that. But then what I
Speaker 2: noticed throughout a lot of the people doing it had
Speaker 2: hips of friends helping me with that process. But was it.
Speaker 2: All these people, I guess wanting to help were a
Speaker 2: lot The vast majority of people reaching out had experienced
Speaker 2: some sort of adversity themselves, and it was the ones
Speaker 2: that sort of shared a bit about themselves and I
Speaker 2: was like, they seem quite special. I'm going to pick
Speaker 2: them for no other reason that I just want to
Speaker 2: hear their story or get some perspective or whatever. And
Speaker 2: so I just picked the ones that seemed really a
Speaker 2: bit deeper in their offer, and that was a really
Speaker 2: good thing to do, because the rest just worked itself out. So,
Speaker 2: like you know, the first day, I think I was
Speaker 2: in all areas of Sydney and I was like, how
Speaker 2: do I get though? If I've got zero cash, how
Speaker 2: do I get from A to B to start? Just
Speaker 2: to start? And then like a it was a luxurious
Speaker 2: like limousine company reached out and we're like, we're really
Speaker 2: inspired joannt us to just give you a driver when
Speaker 2: you're in Sydney.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, dragging around in a limo living
Speaker 1: like a boss. Why did you stop? Why did you
Speaker 1: get to the end of the two It should be
Speaker 1: like ten years old and he's still driving around in
Speaker 1: your wable. It was they're always like that.
Speaker 2: Like I mean, everyone started like I did a blog
Speaker 2: every day, and everyone got quite fascinated by the stories.
Speaker 2: And I realized like halfway through that I wasn't even
Speaker 2: telling my experience. I was telling these stories of There
Speaker 2: was one family who just it still blows my mind.
Speaker 2: So four of them, there was a family of I
Speaker 2: think it was eight, and four had reached out to
Speaker 2: me separately. They didn't know the other one had. They
Speaker 2: just had good bloody people, just good good folk. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and their story is mind blowing. And the dad of
Speaker 2: that family that you know, the leader of that family Surge.
Speaker 2: She was part of the Chilean dictatorship in nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: was in prison, tortured daily, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: His wife broke him out. They got on a boat.
Speaker 2: They got on a boat, become pregnant on the boat.
Speaker 2: Land in Australia. So refugees, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: And their message when they reached out wasn't like we
Speaker 2: can do all this kind of stuff. They're like, can
Speaker 2: we see you struggle and we want to help you.
Speaker 2: We can't give you much. You can sleep on the
Speaker 2: floor of our you know, whatever room, our child's room whatever,
Speaker 2: but we can give you was love, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I need to go there, like I'm going there and
Speaker 2: I need to know their story, and so overwhelmed, and
Speaker 2: I learned so much about adversity. Everyone sees my story
Speaker 2: is oh my god, again you get one Lens. I
Speaker 2: don't know any different, and I wouldn't change my life
Speaker 2: for anything. And my adversities aren't any greater than yours
Speaker 2: or anyone else's. Again, when we're in those moments, some
Speaker 2: of the bigger life adversities I've been through haven't impacted
Speaker 2: me anywhere near is some of the perceived smaller ones.
Speaker 2: I think it just depends where we're at in that
Speaker 2: moment in time and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Don't undersell your adversity, like you know, but our adversity
Speaker 1: is not anywhere near your adversity. And like, I know
Speaker 1: what you're trying to say, but you have for what
Speaker 1: you have gone through to where you are now and
Speaker 1: what you're doing is absolutely incredible. All I'm sitting here
Speaker 1: now is like, Brittany, don't you ever fucking complain about
Speaker 1: one thing? I was like, do do not? And that's
Speaker 1: also this ongoing gift you know to think that you
Speaker 1: can go through these challenges and come out of it
Speaker 1: with the mindset of what can I give to somebody
Speaker 1: else instead of you know, what can I do for
Speaker 1: myself to make myself better? It's so outward facing, which
Speaker 1: is what makes your story so much more beautiful in it.
Speaker 1: In this for somebody who is going through some huge
Speaker 1: adversity in their life. For somebody who's going through and maybe,
Speaker 1: like you said, maybe it's not that the physical thing
Speaker 1: they're going through is the adversity, Maybe they're going through
Speaker 1: some inner turmoil. But for somebody who's experiencing their own
Speaker 1: set of challenges, what is your greatest piece of advice?
Speaker 1: What is something that you think, God, I just wish
Speaker 1: that someone had said this to me or done this
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 3: What is that?
Speaker 2: I'd probably say two things. The first is acknowledge it,
Speaker 2: like own it, like you don't don't ever dismiss your adversity.
Speaker 2: And what the struggle is that you're going through, like
Speaker 2: it's there and it's right there with you at that
Speaker 2: moment in time, and that's okay. You don't have to
Speaker 2: have the answers right now, tomorrow or whatever. Just understand
Speaker 2: and believe that it's going to get better because it will.
Speaker 2: The second thing, And I do this a lot pre COVID.
Speaker 2: I was traveling the world is a speaker, and I
Speaker 2: get asked questions like this a lot, and I was like, well,
Speaker 2: this audience front of me, so there was one hundred
Speaker 2: people there just for the sake of a number, Can
Speaker 2: anyone right now put up their hand honestly and maybe
Speaker 2: to these listeners, can you put up or can you
Speaker 2: say to yourself honestly, I know what my five top
Speaker 2: values are as a person. So do I know who
Speaker 2: I am? What makes me tick? And not many people
Speaker 2: can honestly go I do. It takes you ten minutes
Speaker 2: to figure it out, right, So what's important to you?
Speaker 2: And I think the reason you need to understand what's
Speaker 2: important to you is because that can then help you
Speaker 2: climb out of that hole that you need to get
Speaker 2: out of. So for me, it'd be very different to
Speaker 2: you and to you and to anyone, right, because we're
Speaker 2: all so uniquely beautiful and different. For me, my values
Speaker 2: are a family and friends and loyalty and kindness and
Speaker 2: probably gratitude. Right, So when I can understand that, I
Speaker 2: know that in order for me if I'm having a
Speaker 2: bad day to get out of I probably should need
Speaker 2: to call a friend and say, hey, get me out
Speaker 2: of this, right or whatever. Or I just need to
Speaker 2: experience write down three things that I'm grateful for, or
Speaker 2: give someone kindness, or ask someone for kindness, or give
Speaker 2: me myself some kindness as well. And I think when
Speaker 2: we have that self awareness about who we are, adversity
Speaker 2: is so much easier.
Speaker 1: I think that's a really important point too. Reach out
Speaker 1: to people when you need the help, because like you
Speaker 1: at the start, obviously you've come full circle because you
Speaker 1: were the opposite. You'd rather drag yourself past your friends
Speaker 1: to the hospital as your leg's going to be amputator,
Speaker 1: as your leg's dying, then ask for help. I'm the same,
Speaker 1: like I would rather I screen calls. I'm really guilty
Speaker 1: of it. If if my friends and I'm upset, they
Speaker 1: try and call me, I screen them, Like I don't
Speaker 1: want to ask for help. I don't want to bother anyone.
Speaker 1: But I think there's a really big lesson in it,
Speaker 1: and there's so much power in vulnerability. And I hope
Speaker 1: everyone listening has taken something from Camuine. I know you've
Speaker 1: taken a lot of it. But I hope you realize
Speaker 1: that if you are in a place of struggle, the
Speaker 1: best thing you can do is reach out to somebody, anybody.
Speaker 1: It might be a stranger, it might be a family member,
Speaker 1: might be a friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think connection's so important, for sure, and I'm
Speaker 2: so fortunate in that I've had people that have always
Speaker 2: had my back, for sure, but also the ones that
Speaker 2: have the really hard conversations with me, like I'm not
Speaker 2: going to come pick you up from rehab, or you
Speaker 2: need to be better than this. If I was turning
Speaker 2: to drinking, Not that I did that a lot or anything,
Speaker 2: but you know, back in the day, if I'd have
Speaker 2: too many drinks because I was trying to cope or
Speaker 2: something like that. If I be like, no, I'm calling
Speaker 2: you on your bullshit. Stop that you're better than this,
Speaker 2: kicking to gear, go get the help that you need,
Speaker 2: or whatever it is that you need to do, and
Speaker 2: those conversations that are vitally important when you're in a
Speaker 2: struggle in that you know you need to sometime be
Speaker 2: called on your bullshit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean hard love and soft love at the
Speaker 1: same time. If somebody wants to get involved in the
Speaker 1: Kindness Factory. If somebody wants to be able to spread
Speaker 1: this as far and as wide as it can go,
Speaker 1: how can you know someone tap into the Kindness Factory.
Speaker 1: How can we be a part of it?
Speaker 2: It's so easy. It's not an exclusive club, Bony tread
Speaker 2: I mean the T shirt.
Speaker 1: I mean, Kath is sitting here wearing the T shirt
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, just go onto our websites Kindness Factory
Speaker 2: dot com and you can long an act and that's
Speaker 2: how you can immediately And that's not for us. That's
Speaker 2: more like see someone help them or share the story
Speaker 2: of when someone's helped you from a kindness perspective and
Speaker 2: all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So like when I went on that journey, I then
Speaker 2: sort of ended up traveling the world because everyone to
Speaker 2: hear my story. And I'm not a fantastic figure. I've
Speaker 2: just got an interesting story to tell. And so that
Speaker 2: kept happening. I got quite busy, which was great. Quit
Speaker 2: my job did all that. But the Kindness Factory now
Speaker 2: is a charitable organization. It's now registering three countries, which
Speaker 2: I never really sit back and go I'm really proud
Speaker 2: of this, but I am. I landed myself in New
Speaker 2: York at this really high powered executive's office, and I was.
Speaker 1: Like, God, was it the Obama's again? Did you figure
Speaker 1: this one out? Not this time?
Speaker 2: But it was like the head of his major company,
Speaker 2: like probably one of the world's biggest companies. And I've
Speaker 2: been paid to be there. I've got flowing business class again,
Speaker 2: so that would have cost some upwards of thirty grand
Speaker 2: to get me there, right, And it's not about money
Speaker 2: or anything, but I'm like I get there and I
Speaker 2: was like, where should I set up for this talk?
Speaker 2: And they were like, no, what talk? And I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: You've paid for a speaking engagement. They're like, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just with our you know, the guy that owns
Speaker 2: the company.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, one on one.
Speaker 2: So I was like sat in this office literally just
Speaker 2: doing this, having a conversation with this guy and he's
Speaker 2: asking me questions and I was like and I walk
Speaker 2: out and I'm like, well, what's am I We going
Speaker 2: to an amphitheater to do with the stuff? Talk? Like
Speaker 2: what's going on?
Speaker 1: Like I don't know if you know, but I speak
Speaker 1: to the Obamas. Where is the ground? I headline, I'm
Speaker 1: Michelle Obama And they were like, you're done, Like you literally, I.
Speaker 2: Was like, I've just float like thankfully I had other
Speaker 2: things to do.
Speaker 1: And I was like what, So can I just say
Speaker 1: it seems to be a recurring thing that you don't
Speaker 1: know what you're doing when you get to the who
Speaker 1: am I speaking to? What am I doing? And I
Speaker 1: was like, hello, Katy, You're like I'm there. No one
Speaker 1: seem to a run.
Speaker 2: Scheet for this still again, like back then, I didn't
Speaker 2: have like an assistant and all that. Like my chairman now,
Speaker 2: the chairman of the charity. He's he's quite well known
Speaker 2: in the business world and he rings me sometimes I'm
Speaker 2: overseas and he's like, what have you got on today?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, he loves this story because he's like,
Speaker 2: you're in such a fool but this is why I
Speaker 2: love working with you. I was like, I've got a
Speaker 2: meeting with this company and he's like who is it?
Speaker 2: And I was like JP something and he's just like
Speaker 2: what And I was like, I don't know. I think
Speaker 2: it's a bank or and he's like I was like JP,
Speaker 2: and he's like JP Morgan Chase and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: he goes cat that's He's like fucking He.
Speaker 1: Like, mate, you don't pay me, but yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: So I'm having all these moments where I was like
Speaker 2: zero idea what I was doing. But I was like,
Speaker 2: when I walked out of that meeting, I was like,
Speaker 2: this is not why I pursued this, not to sit
Speaker 2: in a one on one meeting with a really wealthy man.
Speaker 2: I was like, I was a little bit ashamed of myself,
Speaker 2: and I was like, well, what do I want? It Like,
Speaker 2: I felt quite lost in the journey. So I was like,
Speaker 2: well what do I want? And I was like, I
Speaker 2: just want more kindness in the world. And so I
Speaker 2: was like, I need to approach kids. I need to
Speaker 2: get in front of kids and start this generational change
Speaker 2: of kindness. So the factory he's got like the log
Speaker 2: and you, adults and kids alike can get engaged with that,
Speaker 2: and we're about to roll out corporate programs in kindness
Speaker 2: and all that kind of stuff. Whi's been fantastic with
Speaker 2: some great organizations around that. But I went into all
Speaker 2: these school environments and people became very aware very quickly
Speaker 2: that I was doing it for free and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. So I had this like backlog of
Speaker 2: six hundred schools. I was like, I'm never going to
Speaker 2: get to that many. And COVID struck and all these
Speaker 2: teachers were reaching out and I alert things from going
Speaker 2: into those school environments. And the first is that kids
Speaker 2: want to be kind. No one's born unkind, Like we
Speaker 2: all want to be kind, right, That's why I'm like,
Speaker 2: this should just be motoring on by itself, because we
Speaker 2: all are naturally inclined to be kind.
Speaker 1: And get them while they're young. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2: Sometimes adversity happens, or life experience or societal pressures, and
Speaker 2: when you see three year olds playing with they don't
Speaker 2: care what color skin you've got, or religion you are
Speaker 2: into and all that, so it creeps out of us
Speaker 2: somewhere along the way. So I was like, we need
Speaker 2: to get to one as early as possible. And yeah,
Speaker 2: every time I go into a school, the teachers will go,
Speaker 2: what can you leave us with? We've got access to
Speaker 2: these kids every day, like you can't come back tomorrow
Speaker 2: and foot we'd love you too, but you can't. And
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, okay, that's true. And in a
Speaker 2: very reactive way, teachers would reach out and they say, look,
Speaker 2: can you come to our school because we actually lost
Speaker 2: a student to suicide. And it's of course I can,
Speaker 2: I'll drop everything and do it. But why does it
Speaker 2: take the loss of a student for you to pick
Speaker 2: up the phone like this is ridiculous. So I ends
Speaker 2: up sharing this predicament with Kaplan, who are an education provider,
Speaker 2: a global one, and they were very inspired by what
Speaker 2: I was trying to do, and so I said, look,
Speaker 2: I want to create a kindness curriculum that can go
Speaker 2: into schools, and so we ended up creating that and
Speaker 2: during COVID we launched it into sixty schools in Australia
Speaker 2: and it's now in congrats that's huge. Yeah, it's in
Speaker 2: three thousand now in Australia all around Australia, which has
Speaker 2: been fantastic, all online, which teaches the basic principles of kindness,
Speaker 2: so like things like perspective and attitude and positivity and
Speaker 2: empathy and all those sorts of things. And it's about
Speaker 2: to be launched into the US on well kind of
Speaker 2: stay this year and then the UK beyond that. And
Speaker 2: I feel like this journey now is one that I'm
Speaker 2: no longer in control of which I'm completely comfortable with
Speaker 2: I think the sky is the limit in terms of
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff. But I guess is a
Speaker 2: really long way of me answering, how do people become involved?
Speaker 2: Please just be kind? Yeah, but we will. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: would be really silly not to mention that.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: Kindness Day, as I mentioned, is the thirteenth of November,
Speaker 2: so this year, this week, this week, so it's this Saturday,
Speaker 2: thirteenth of November. And this year, I mean, the last
Speaker 2: two years we've broken world records for most sacks of
Speaker 2: kindness on platforms and all that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 2: this year, I guess the give back has almost been
Speaker 2: that we recognize it the power and the importance of
Speaker 2: kindness throughout COVID and as we re emerge, which want
Speaker 2: as many people to continue that for us. And so
Speaker 2: we know that, you know, the stats are overwhelmingly positive,
Speaker 2: positively lent towards kindness. So yeah, we're encouraging people are
Speaker 2: a QR code or we're calling it a KR code
Speaker 2: to scam that and you'll get prescribed and active kindness
Speaker 2: that you can do this Saturday.
Speaker 1: Oh so it'll tell you like buy a coffee for
Speaker 1: a friend or for a stranger or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll absolutely so. Yeah. So yeah, if you want
Speaker 2: to share the QR code, any listeners, please get amongst
Speaker 2: that on any platforms.
Speaker 1: We will put the QR code on our Instagram as well,
Speaker 1: so you guys can find it very easily. And if
Speaker 1: you want to partake in a random active kindness and
Speaker 1: world kind of stay, which we think you all should
Speaker 1: do not if you want to, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: call it out now. Let's we're all going to do it.
Speaker 1: Every person that is listening to this episode now on
Speaker 1: World Kindness Day or even today. It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: wait for the day. I want you to go out
Speaker 1: and do something kind, buy someone a coffee, give someone
Speaker 1: a compliment, do something for no reason, and like, don't
Speaker 1: pretend to do it, because we'll know you guys have
Speaker 1: got to go and do it. I'm going to go
Speaker 1: do it. We're going to start a thread on the
Speaker 1: Facebook group as well, which if you are not following,
Speaker 1: it's life on cut Discretion group, and then that way
Speaker 1: we can keep track of what you guys are doing
Speaker 1: as well. So I am just like, thank you, I
Speaker 1: cannot thank you enough for coming here today. I am
Speaker 1: I mean, I knew your story obviously because we got
Speaker 1: you on the podcast, We've researched it, but nothing could
Speaker 1: have prepared me for what you just told me. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm blown away and how far you have come and
Speaker 1: how positive you are. You are an absolute inspiration to
Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody that comes across you, and I know
Speaker 1: I'm leaving I'm one hundred leaving a better person from
Speaker 1: this interview today, So I couldn't ask for more.
Speaker 2: Ah, guys, there's been my pleasure. I've loved it. It's
Speaker 2: been great.
Speaker 1: Can you tell everyone where they can find you? So
Speaker 1: for anyone looking for it, it's your candles, your handles
Speaker 1: on Instagram, the website. Let us know where they can
Speaker 1: find you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so me personally, it's just Cath kocil, so koshl
Speaker 2: and kat H's Cath. I think it's like Facebook. I'm
Speaker 2: not again, just not really driven by socials but on them.
Speaker 2: And then obviously Kindness Factory is just at Kindness Factory
Speaker 2: or one word all that kind of stuff, but or
Speaker 2: Kindnessfactory dot com is the website for the most important
Speaker 2: part of logging your act as well, of course, but.
Speaker 1: We will link. We'll put all CA's details and everything
Speaker 1: will be in the show notes if you guys want
Speaker 1: to go and track it down and share your active kindness.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much much of being a part of
Speaker 1: the podcast. Kat, We absolutely loved it.
Speaker 2: Nah me too. It's been awesome.
Speaker 1: We never end an episode without our sucking, our sweet,
Speaker 1: our highlight and our lowlight. The best and the worst
Speaker 1: of the week, Laura, do you want to kick it off?
Speaker 1: What is your suck of the week? Okay, my suck
Speaker 1: of the week. Oh, you guys already know the suck
Speaker 1: of the week. The suck of the week was having
Speaker 1: a creepy man sitting in his car watching me taking
Speaker 1: photos of you taking photos of me. And if you're
Speaker 1: that creepy man and you listen to Life Fung, don't
Speaker 1: shame on you taking photos of someone's family. Honestly, that
Speaker 1: was my suck. I was so excited about the house.
Speaker 1: If I knew someone was going to take photos of me,
Speaker 1: I would have brushed my hair and yeah, I just
Speaker 1: didn't want that to be plasted all over the news.
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's that was a suck. The sweet, though,
Speaker 1: was really really amazing. So when I was in Byron,
Speaker 1: this woman named Sammy reached out to me on Instagram.
Speaker 1: She is a lifer. This is also a sweet and
Speaker 1: a recommendation.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: She has a business called the Candid Files, and she
Speaker 1: takes photos of kids, like she takes beautiful family photos.
Speaker 1: And she reached out and was like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: while you're in Byron, would you like to come and
Speaker 1: have some photos taken. I did not expect them to
Speaker 1: be as crazy amazing as what they are. I've seen them.
Speaker 1: They're pretty amazing. And I know that Samy's going to
Speaker 1: be listening to this because she is a lifer. So
Speaker 1: if you guys, if you're going to Byron and you
Speaker 1: have kids and you want to get some beautiful family
Speaker 1: photos taken, She's got a gorgeous little studio in the
Speaker 1: industrial estate. I'm going to put some of them on
Speaker 1: my Instagram because I'm just so in love with them.
Speaker 1: But honestly, it was just one of those moments where
Speaker 1: one I got to meet someone who was part of
Speaker 1: our community, and two I was like wow, like they're
Speaker 1: actually really beautiful, so talented, and it's so incredible to
Speaker 1: have stunning photos of your kids, like to be able
Speaker 1: to hold onto those memories, and yeah, I got them
Speaker 1: last night. And I was going through them and I
Speaker 1: was like, God, my kids are beautiful, sending them to
Speaker 1: everyone who's like, we don't care as much as you do,
Speaker 1: but they're amazing. Okay, So does everybody have to use
Speaker 1: their investigative skills and find Sammy on their own? Or
Speaker 1: what is Sammy's handle?
Speaker 2: It is? I tell you hold on?
Speaker 1: Where where's my phone? Okay? For anyone who wants to know,
Speaker 1: or if you're going to Byron and you want to
Speaker 1: book her, it is the care ended files on Instagram.
Speaker 1: I like that name. Yeah, super cute. Look there's a
Speaker 1: photo of money. Cute Brittany. What is your suck? My
Speaker 1: suck and my suite are tied into the same thing,
Speaker 1: and I'll say my sweet first because that leads into
Speaker 1: the suck. I went back to Port Macquarie just for
Speaker 1: the weekend for a flying visit to see my parents
Speaker 1: and my brother, my niece and nephew. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: them in I don't think I've seen my parents in
Speaker 1: like seven or eight months, which is crazy. We speak
Speaker 1: all the time, but we haven't seen each other. So
Speaker 1: that was really really nice. My suck was driving back.
Speaker 1: I just didn't think it didn't even clock that this
Speaker 1: was the first weekend everyone was allowed to like travel
Speaker 1: out of the jurisdiction didn't even register. On the way
Speaker 1: back from probably what should have been a four hour trip,
Speaker 1: it took me like seven and a half hours. The
Speaker 1: traffic was backed up as long as I could see.
Speaker 1: The rain was torrential, to the point that I was
Speaker 1: like this, someone's gonna have an accident. You could see
Speaker 1: every three lanes were driving with their hazards on. You
Speaker 1: can only see two meters ahead of you. You know
Speaker 1: that traffic where you're like I can't even pull. I
Speaker 1: can't even see where I could pull ouse you're three
Speaker 1: lanes deep. You just have to crawl at like twenty
Speaker 1: thirty kilometers. So that was my suck, And yeah, that
Speaker 1: was it. Otherwise as a really uneventful, just like a
Speaker 1: really wholesome family weekend away. What an anticlimactic way of
Speaker 1: finishing off. We've been a really special couple of days. Though,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is fuck, this is cool, Like
Speaker 1: every body in Australia just wants everybody in New South
Speaker 1: Wales just wants to get out and see the world out.
Speaker 1: But it did mean that everyone in New South Wales
Speaker 1: was out with their family. So that's really nice. All
Speaker 1: the silver lining, guys, we hope that you love the episode. Honestly,
Speaker 1: we really would love all of you all to take
Speaker 1: a little piece of this episode and go and do
Speaker 1: a random active kindness for someone this week. Go and
Speaker 1: log your random active kindness on Cat's website, which is
Speaker 1: the Kindness Factory. We'll put all the details in the
Speaker 1: show notes. And this is also just your friendly reminder
Speaker 1: to jump on and give if you thought about it
Speaker 1: at the beginning but then you didn't stop, this is
Speaker 1: your reminder to go and give us a vote in
Speaker 1: the People's Choice Award in the Australian Podcast Awards, which
Speaker 1: we'll also put those details in the show. Not speaking
Speaker 1: of like doing the deed. I thought you'd bring me
Speaker 1: a coffee today, but you didn't. Tomorrow, Lucky world kind
Speaker 1: of stays on the Saturday.
Speaker 3: That is it.
Speaker 1: We will see you again. Actually I was gonna say
Speaker 1: we'll see on Thursday for Ask on Cut. But on
Speaker 1: Wednesday tomorrow, guys, there is an episode, a little bonus episode.
Speaker 1: It has been a long time coming.
Speaker 2: It is my.
Speaker 1: Interview and I use the word interview loosely. It's my
Speaker 1: chat with I don't even know if I love it,
Speaker 1: but yeah, with the other half, Jordan. You guys have
Speaker 1: wanted an episode to meet Jordan, see what all the
Speaker 1: fuss is about, just find out a little bit more
Speaker 1: about him. I want to say, reluctantly did the podcast.
Speaker 1: He was excited to do it for me because he
Speaker 1: makes it happy. But as you're here, he is. He
Speaker 1: doesn't love interviews. He did his best. He was great.
Speaker 1: But I hope you guys love him. I hope you
Speaker 1: learned something from him, and I just hope you I
Speaker 1: don't know's I feel like I'm sharing a bit of
Speaker 1: my life that I haven't really shared with you guys before.
Speaker 1: I think for Laura and Matt. Matt's always on the pod.
Speaker 1: He's such a public figure, and Jordan is a public figure,
Speaker 1: but he's not big on socials. He doesn't share a
Speaker 1: lot of his life, so everything that he's sharing now
Speaker 1: is really really big for him. So yeah, I'm excited
Speaker 1: for you guys to hear it. That's dropping tomorrow if
Speaker 1: you're interested. I love that you did this episode. I
Speaker 1: love that you're able to give a little bit of
Speaker 1: an insight into your relationship to our listeners. Because like
Speaker 1: you said, you know, Matt is just like he is
Speaker 1: a like an old piece of furniture on this podcast now,
Speaker 1: and like this is something that's part of Matt's world.
Speaker 1: Whereas for Jordan, I think it's really special that he
Speaker 1: put himself out of his comfort zone to be able
Speaker 1: to do a podcast because it's not something that he
Speaker 1: felt comfortable doing, and it is something that required a
Speaker 1: little bit of positive coercion from Britney. I'd give him
Speaker 1: a reward. He was like a dog. You gave him
Speaker 1: a blowy afterwards. Anyway, guys, that is it from us.
Speaker 1: If you love the episode, please jump on Apple Podcast
Speaker 1: leave a review. If you feel like this is an
Speaker 1: episode that could touch someone or you know, positively affect
Speaker 1: someone's day, please share the episode. Tell your mum, to
Speaker 1: your dad, tell your sister, your brother, your friends, your cousin,
Speaker 1: your dog, and just tell everyone and share the love.
Speaker 3: Because we love the boy, then the Company, then the Bay,
Speaker 3: the BA