Master of Public Health University of Sydney Medical School

We arrived at the hospital when we were 40 weeks pregnant with our first child, filled with trepidation and excitement. We were hooked up to the heart rate monitor and we smiled as we saw our babies heart beat, represented by the valleys and peaks of the green line. No one knew as I lay there in that hospital bed, that I had developed a very rare and life threatening abnormality of the placenta.

In an instant everything changed, the heart rate monitor flat lined and the life threatening hemorrhage was obvious to everyone in the room. I was having an out of body experience, looking down on the medical staff running down the hallway, pushing us into theatre. I heard the code blue announcement over the hospital PA system and I knew if we survived, life would never be the same. The medical staff could not find our daughters heart beat and she was born having lost 70 percent of her blood, limp, blue and not breathing. I developed Sepsis, a condition that kills hundreds of thousands people in the US alone every year.  Eventually our daughter and I recovered from the experience and are now both happy, healthy and doing well in life.

That experience had a profound impact on the way I see the world. It led me to become obsessed with the question of how do you know if a medical intervention is effective and safe? How do you know what is good for your health and well being? How did those medical professionals know how to save us? How did they know that pumping a new born baby full of salt and water was the right thing to do before a 7 hour blood transfusion could begin?

During the years after that event, we were running a management consulting business and raising three young daughters. I was still searching for answers to questions like how do you know what is good for human health and well being?I was considering going back to study. The last time I had studied was 20 years prior, where I completed a business degree at Melbourne University. I decided to apply to Sydney University Medical School and study public health with all the doctors and other medical professionals. I was the only person with a business background. It was a whole new different world. The biggest skill taught is how to evaluate medical literature to develop recommendations to improve the health and well being of different populations. I finally had the answers to what I had been searching for.

Fast forward to 2018, I had been going hard for many years, juggling a full time corporate role in the health industry and raising three primary school aged daughters. I had been working in public health for several years. I had been working hard setting up the operations of the National Cancer Screening Register in Australia. I was  used to pushing through, putting every one else's needs before mine, juggling the huge demands on me and ignoring the signals my body was sending me. To cut a long story short I had a physical break down, the side of my face went numb and drooped, I couldn't see, speak, think or sleep properly. I was experiencing bone crushing fatigue and horrendous migraines. My work did an intervention on me, sending me on 8 weeks sick leave, telling me that I had never taken any sick leave in prior years.

I went to every medical professional under the sun. This was absolutely the right thing to do. However I knew that I needed more. I was not Thriving in life. I had looked good on paper but the reality was that I had been stressed, exhausted, overwhelmed and not loving life. I felt trapped and had been unable to find a way out. My breakdown was a wake up call. I knew that things needed to change.

I had never had 8 weeks off work since I was 15 years old. Twenty years of being a management consultant plus the skills I learned in medical school enabled me to build a Road Map for myself. The Road Map was based on what medical science knows about how to live a healthy and happy life. I reviewed all the medical literature on what we know about what makes for healthy, happy and thriving humans. I turned this into a Ten Step Road Map that I follow every day. To say it transformed my life is an understatement. Today I am happy, healthy, full of energy and loving life.

I have helped hundreds of people all around the world to transform their own lives. My mission is to share the Thrive Living Road Map with as many people as possible, to support them to make that same transformation that I and so many other people have made.