Ladies of Liverpool

I love introducing you to my mates and this one you probably know better as Tin Head? Brookside fans you will love this episode. Since leaving Brookside Olivier has performed in two dozen audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series by Big Finish Productions as a companion of the Seventh Doctor by the name of Hex. Philip has also appeared as one of the guest regulars in the Channel 4 comedy sketch show Bo Selecta. Find out what his day job his these days and life with 3 baby boys!

After being squashed by a tree in Hollyoaks, Jess faced a dilemma… What should she do with her life next? Well, she has entered the podcast world! Her brand new podcast where she sits in her house, usually a few gin and tonics deep, and talks to her friends about your problems. Today I ask her a few questions of my own. How do you move on after soap life? Her life has been flipped upside down and she was up for a frank and honest convo with us. 

Have you heard the news? Pete Price is dead!  Well... he will be when my brand new show opens at the Royal Court on Friday 13th March 2002. I'm sure you've got questions, so tune in now and hear all about it.  As you can imagine, Pete's having a wobble! 

Meet Lydia, ‘The past year I have completely change my outlook after what I believe was a spiritual awakening and now I am in the best place I have ever been in. I have learnt so many tools to help with my personal growth and self-development and I make a conscious effort to be kind to myself every day. For me life is a beautiful, precious thing and I hate the thought of people wasting it worrying about their body or Instagram followers so I decided to spread my message and set up my ‘Self Love Masterclasses’.  My vision and my aim is to educate people on self-love and help them understand its much deeper that our physical appearance – it’s a process of self-acceptance, emotional awareness, growth, vulnerability and celebrating who we are.’

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