A Life Less Ordinary with Sophie Elwes

Aug 13 2023 27

Hosted by Sophie Elwes, who knows a thing or two about overcoming difficulties, after sustaining a spinal cord injury in 2011. Each episode Sophie will interview an extraordinary guest who has faced and overcome enormous challenges and adversity and is achieving incredible things in spite of what they've had to deal with. She'll be finding out their story, about their greatest struggles and triumphs, and asking them what advice they would share with other people dealing with challenges of their own.

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A Life Less Ordinary Host Finale! Sophie Elwes - Surviving despite the odds, carving your own destiny and being grateful for all of the things

Aug 13 2023 57 mins

For this epsiode Sophie is interviewed by her good friend Sarah Orr (who appeared in series two of A Life Less Ordinary with Sophie Elwes). Sophie tells her story from when she sustained her spinal cord injury back in 2011 after falling from a roof terrace. They discuss the aftermath, from spending nearly six weeks in an induced coma with 40% chance of survival, to going to Stoke M

Jambo Truong - Witnessing his sister’s death at a young age, growing up queer and Asian in South Wales and and why trauma is your trajectory

Aug 06 2023 66 mins

Jambo Truong is a practitioner of integrative medicine with a specialism in complimentary medicine and therapies who has impressive credentials and a vast knowledge and repertoire of different practices. Growing up in South Wales and feeling like an outsider as being from an ethnic minority, as well as being queer, he faced a lot of bullying and had to learn to defend himself. Witn

Sophie Dear - How speaking to her inner child transformed her life, how to set boundaries and realise your self-worth

Jul 30 2023 61 mins

Sophie Dear is a yoga teacher and self-worth coach who struggled with insomnia and undiagnosed anxiety since the age of 15. She appeared to have a thriving career in the TV industry but it wasn't until reaching a point of burnout that she had a conversation with a doctor who encouraged her to question her self-critic by interacting with her 'inner child' that led her

Raquel Siganporia - Becoming a wheelchair user at age 11, top tips to assert yourself, and what she wishes people knew about sex and disability

Jul 23 2023 65 mins

Raquel Siganporia is the Director of Business Development and Senior Solicitor at Aspire Law and she sustained a spinal cord injury following surgery to correct the curvature of her spine, or scoliosis, which went wrong when she was aged 11. She tells me about the immediate aftermath of such a life-changing event and about what it was like starting secondary school in the '90s

Adam Wilder - Authentic intimacy, honouring ourselves and why playfulness is sacred.

Jul 16 2023 49 mins

Adam is the founder of Togetherness which is a social enterprise whose purpose is to make meaningful connection more accessible in our culture. Having been a people pleaser and studied it in depth, Adam has a great understanding of his own behaviour patterns and we unpick what it means and why awareness is key to working through feeling the need to please others and putting their n

Lauren Murrell - Getting a cancer diagnosis in her early twenties, manifestation and why main character energy works

Jul 09 2023 44 mins

Whilst in her last year of law school, in her early twenties, Lauren Murrell was diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood cancer (myeloid leukaemia) with only 20% chance of survival. Whilst she was in hospital her sister Sarah developed some natural skincare formulations to restore and repair her sister's sensitive fragile skin. After a life-saving stem cell transplant from

Melanie Woods - Becoming paralysed after being hit by a car, finding fun in the darkest of situations and competing at the Paralympics before she expected

Jul 02 2023 48 mins

Melanie Woods is a former PE teacher and GB Paralympic athlete who sustained a spinal cord injury after being hit by a car whilst riding her bike. She tells me about her experience of rehabilitation, learning how to become independent and managing to walk with crutches whilst in rehab. She shares how she found ways to cope with her new situation and her journey into wheelchair raci

Carlos Cervantes - Discovering meditation, cultivating creativity and becoming symptom free from bipolar disorder

Jun 25 2023 53 mins

This was such a special conversation with Carlos Cervantes who talks about his experiences in his late teens and early 20s of suffering from severe depression, 'overdoing it' on drink and drugs, dropping out of university having had a mental breakdown, feeling suicidal and receiving a diagnosis of Bipolar Type One Disorder. He came across a teacher of meditation and start

Bonus episode! Dr Clair Pollard - A psychologist's guide to helping others, breaking her back in Namibia and thinking about the stories we tell ourselves

Jul 31 2022 41 mins

Working in the NHS for 27 years, Dr Clair Pollard is a Clinical Psychologist and Acting Director for a large psychology mental health trust in South London and a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist. She also sustained a spinal cord injury during her training at the age of 25 which left her paraplegic and a wheelchair user. Undeterred by this, it was her determination and focus on her t

LGBTQ+ pride month bonus episode! Rosie Wilby - post-traumatic growth after a breakup, reinvestigating monogamy and sex party etiquette

Jun 30 2022 50 mins

Rosie Wilby is an award-winning comedian, author and podcaster who has appeared a number of times on BBC Radio 4 programmes including Woman's Hour, Saturday Live and Four Thought. Her first book Is Monogamy Dead? was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize and followed a trilogy of solo shows investigating the psychology of love and relationships. Her new book The Breakup M

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