Ladies of Liverpool

Fancy a night out that will change people’s lives? Meet Sandra Kirkham - MD of Progress to Excellence Group.  P2E Group is made up of a group of education and training providers. She is sponsoring this years Claire House Ball and is very passionate about supporting local communities. Also Jan Sutherland-Oaks – Director of Clinical Services at Claire House Children’s Hospice. In 2012 Jan was appointed as Director of Clinical Services at the hospice and leads a talented and dedicated care team supporting seriously and terminally ill children and their families. They need us! So tune in and step up!

Irene Afful is the CEO of Ametrine Enterprise Solutions, a coaching and consultancy service in Liverpool. She has a wealth of experience under her belt; she has over 30 years of experience within Public Sector organizations and over 20 of those in management roles. Each one as inspiring as the next.  For example, Irene was the first black female inspector in the Merseyside Police. Hear how she battled discrimination on many levels and made history!

Jenny Mac is passionate about food. So much so she has recently launched a plant based meal delivery service. She is not your stereotypical vegan, walking round in kale shoes and carrying a 'Pigs are People' banner but she knows the benefits that come with plant-based diet. She wants people to reconnect with food and fuel themselves with everything their bodies need, to help reduce inflammation and disease by stepping away from the sometimes toxic western diet. Jenny knows people are short on time and that wellbeing is the first thing to be neglected when you're busy, on top of this the mainstream information does not always have the answer to poor health and so the Underground Wellbeing Society was launched.

This week we’re joined by Debbie Rodgers, brother of Sean Maloney who sadly passed away after committing suicide.    Debbie has set up Sean’s Place after her concerns of the lack of support and services available for men who are suffering with mental health in Merseyside. The mental health and wellbeing center will provide a place for men to access free sessions and courses to improve mental wellbeing and simply be a safe haven for them to relax amongst like minded people in a supportive, non judgemental environment whilst removing the barrier of costs.    The hope is that there will be opportunities to access sessions such as mindfulness and fitness classes due to medical research highlighting the benefits of this to mental wellbeing, there will also be skills sessions to promote confidence in the community and employability to those who may benefit from it.   Listen to her story this week and help Sean’s Place if you can.

National HIV Testing Week (NHTW) is an annual campaign which seeks to promote regular testing among key populations. It aims to reduce the numbers of undiagnosed people and those diagnosed late.   Serena Cavanagh, Health Promotion Lead for Merseyside’s HIV prevention has been working for Sahir House for nearly 20 years and have seen the many changing faces of HIV on Merseyside. The campaign is about normalising having a HIV test and dispelling the myths, and is encouraging people to ‘Know their HIV status’ and be open about talking about this whether HIV positive, negative or untested.   If you would like to support Sahir House and the testing campaign, visit www.sahir.org.uk

Never scared to speak her truth its Tina Malone. Born in Toxteth Tina is well known for playing larger than life characters on TV from Mo McGee in Brookside to  Mimi Maguire on Shameless from 2005 until 2013. Other television roles include playing a nurse called Bobbie in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies but on 2nd January 2009, Malone entered the Celebrity Big Brother house. She was the seventh person to enter and was immediately picked up on her loudness. On 16 January, Malone was the second person to be evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother House. Tina appeared on Celebrity Four Weddings in December 2010, which she won. More recently  she played Elaine McDermott in the 5Star prison drama Clink. Despite her success in May 2012, Tina was declared bankrupt. Aged 50 she gave birth to a second daughter named Flame Chase and recently pleaded guilty to Contempt of court, having shared a social media post which purported to reveal the identity of a killer, contrary to a court order. She was given an eight month prison sentence which was suspended for two years. We have so much to talk about! This is not to be missed x

Grace is a 22 year old entrepreneur who launched her business, MissKick, in response to her experiences of being a female footballer. As a young girl, Grace spent her football career playing for Liverpool before making the move to Manchester City when she was 17.  Although a professional career in football wasn’t pursued, it’s still a big part of Grace’s life, and she continues to play now for Chorley FC Women. Through the MissKick brand, Grace hopes to challenge the perception that football is just a ‘boys’ sport and inspire more girls to get involved in the game. Also, for every tshirt or hoodie they sell, they donate £1 back into girls grassroots football and help to support local initiatives by funding kit or training equipment.  Although she has been juggling her business alongside her Psychology degree, Grace has already began to make an impact with girls going crazy all over the country for MissKick. She talks all about her football career, her MissKick journey so far

Meet Rachel Daley! In 2014 her son Jack was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. He was 3 years old. He successfully completed a year of treatment & rang the end of treatment bell. In January 2018 the disease returned and he had to begin a second treatment protocol involving two years of chemotherapy.  As his mother she found that the best way for them to cope was to create a positive force-field around their family. They called on mentors & coaches to help them develop their mindset. They worked hard to focus on how to make good of their situation and pledged to use their experience to positively impact the lives of others.  Hear her story now on Ladies of Liverpool 

East Liverpool Riding for the Disabled is a Merseyside based charity that works in the local community to provide Horse riding therapy sessions for children and adults with disabilities across our city. We provide scheduled therapy sessions on a weekly basis to those recovering from illness or injury and those with long term disabilities such as autism, strokes, heart defects and Down’s syndrome to name a few.  We are lead by volunteers, and funded by kind hearted people who make donations and provide funding. We rely solely on donations in order to run therapy sessions.    East Liverpool brings together individuals, carers and families from all different backgrounds and allows them escape the struggles and hardships they have to face. Our sessions give our riders social and interactive skills but most importantly it brings enjoyment and fulfillment to their lives.

With the weather getting hot this week, it’s never been more important to know the right way to look after your skin.  This week, we’re joined by Skcin who are proud to announce a collaboration with Liverpool based melanoma charity, the Clare Daly Foundation who have pledged £10,000 support to offer free training to hair, health and beauty professionals across Merseyside via Skcin’s national MASCED accreditation programme. Hear how they’re planning to train as many professionals as they can to help raise the awareness of Melanoma, and the many way in which it can be detected early.