10 years back…..10 years forward

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In 2003 I was in Nassau, Bahamas. I had gone there in a puff of optimism late in 2000 after thinking I had left behind a successful career in PR in London, sold my company, adopted two (older children), sold up my house in W. Hampstead and embraced a new life in the Bahamas – although I found I had no identity there…..no work…no status….waiting at the school gates with women who had never worked or, to be honest, their maids who were picking up the kids. As a grocer’s daughter from Notts who went to a comprehensive and then launched and sold a successful PR company in London I was lost. I ran 5k each day, I loved my kids, I loved my dogs but I was adrift in a new world…….

So, cancer (mine) a stroke (Dad’s), cancer (my beautiful Mum’s who didn’t survive) and a bunch of other stuff later I returned to the UK. Still positive with all the NLP/Tony Robbins stuff plus my newly restored faith I put the kids in school, moved back to Notts after 25 years away and rebuilt a life – launching the Trent FM Race for Life in 2006 with a new found friend Jude.In 2007, having been advised by a mentor that perhaps coaching was for me, I approached Go MAD Thinking to attend their foundation course. After four days I loved the course and they loved me and offered me a new position as Insight and Innovation director.

Being back was wonderful and hard too. I spend time caring for my Dad who I lost in 2011 on my 50th birthday (I was celebrating in Sardinia), I married my childhood sweetheart Mark and he/we became grandparents. I stayed cancer free despite some scares. I found out how to live the 5 F’s of Faith Fitness Family Friends & Finance. I was moved to apply for a job where I was giving something back and having been influenced during my cancer journey by the book ‘The Gift of Pain’ I joined The Leprosy Mission England & Wales. Now I really give back: to those whose voices have gone unheard. To the marginalised and unloved, to those who have the triple whammy of disease, disability and discrimination. Check out more at www.theleprosymission.org.ukSo what difference has 10 years made? I no longer feel like ‘I’ve made it’ or that ‘I deserve it’. I realise that I’ve been blessed with an interesting life with success and failure, joy and pain and that all are necessary for growth and none are to be railed against as they are all part of a greater pattern. I try to be the best me I can be.