Mortal And Strong - Voice No. 44 Helene Raynsford Paralympic Gold Medalist

Honoured to have a very special guest as our latest Voice - Team GB Retired Paralympic Gold Medalist in rowing (Beijing Paralympics) 2008- Helene Raynsford. Helene has a truly rare perspective on navigating not only multiple very complex health conditions and living life as a wheelchair user at a young age, facing breast cancer, an ileostomy with a stoma...but how she used her mental training to win Gold in the Paralympic Games as a 'blueprint' to approach each new health challenge. Helene does an incredible amount of advocacy work that isn't always publicly visible; supporting multiple charities, being Chair of the Athletes Commission for the Paralympics GB, a Non-Executive Director for Sports England. Her career in public health reinforces her outreach work at trying to address major health inequalities that still exist - for example the fact that mobile MRI breast screening units are on the whole not wheelchair accessible. Such a humble, modest person who sets the gold standard of what genuine advocacy work is about, using her health conditions to truly help and support others for greater and lasting change. We are honoured to share her health journey as one of our Voices in the Scars of Gold campaign, and for Helene to be Patron to our charity and support our mission here at Mortal And Strong. This interview provides unique and new perspectives on how to prepare mentally for new health challenges and how to keep focused on the end goal (or finishing line). A gold medalist sharing her Scars of Gold, but more importantly a humble human being who has reflected a lot on what it is to be mortal and how to make the most of life and not be defeated by any health challenges.

Mortal and Strong is a registered charity and presenting our debut campaign Scars of Gold. A campaign using art to shine the spotlight on women facing their own mortality - those affected at a young age by a life changing illness or disease. 100 artworks produced by artists across the country along with a powerful photography series ‘Scars of Gold’ inspired by kintsugi. 100 Voices sharing messages of hope and strength through our podcast. Building a platform to provide health awareness, support and education to change the face of disease in young people. Founded by Dr Liz Murray. 

For more information on support available for these issues discussed in todays episode, including direction to medical information, visit our website. This episode is not intended as specific medical advice, always see your own GP/physician if you have any concerns regarding your own health. 

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