Raising women with disabilities up through shared stories
When Karen Winnett’s daughter Eleanor was four months old she was advised her baby would unlikely live past two years old. Go home and love her while you’ve got the chance, she was advised. Or, worse, don’t get too attached as she won’t be with you for long. But this fiercely determined mother refused to listen. Through sheer grit, unflinching determination and steadfast denial Karen has kept her bright and intelligent daughter alive. This year Eleanor celebrated her 22nd birthday.
Jenny Bowen’s charity OneSky, formerly Half the Sky Foundation, has transformed the lives of more than 130,000 Chinese orphans by showering these unwanted children with the most important ingredient missing from their lives – love. How did one woman make such a difference to so many?
After enduring the death of her mother to cancer and brother to suicide, Sally Lucas was not prepared for her own cancer diagnosis and consequent hysterectomy. But thanks to the love of her sister Anne Barbour, she not only survived but flourished to become a mother – a dream she’d thought life had denied her.
This 18-year-old Brisbane model is turning the fashion world upside down by showing that true beauty comes from within, and this often-fickle industry is falling in love with her for offering the reminder.
The death of Karen Civello’s little brother as a child sparked a troubled life that sent her to the depths of drugs, alcohol, depression and cancer. But, through sheer strength of will Karen fought back to create a life characterised by wellness, nurturing and self-care.
Nick Seneca Jankel’s quest to determine how people can feel good and live life as the best version of themselves has taken him from the hallowed halls of Cambridge University to the homelands of African tribes. He delivers his learnings in a style renowned for combining science with traditional wisdom, without the woo woo.
Foster mother Sharon Greenock has cared for some 20 foster children and welcomed four of them into her home permanently, alongside her three biological children. What drives someone to open their heart and their home to children who’ve been removed from their families because the Family Court rules it unsafe?
As the mother of a 16-year-old son with autism, Clara Harris has embarked on a mission to help others living with disabilities and depression by sharing her own often raw, painful and life-enriching experiences. In doing so she is capturing the hearts of those she meets with her warmth, love and honesty.
As Marcia Huber watched her sister Eleanor Gorman suffer through the grief of failed IVF attempts and miscarriages, she offered to carry Eleanor’s child through pregnancy as a surrogate mother. The resultant journey took them on an emotional whirlwind of gut-wrenching fear, restrained hope, sheer love and, ultimately, unbridled joy.
How do you maintain faith in love when you’ve been devastated by heartbreak? Life coach Fleur Porter draws on her own life experiences, and her training as a life coach and relationship mentor, to reveal what she has learned about love.
The topic of same-sex marriage unleashes sometimes ferocious debate in Australia. Yet one Geraldton couple have acted on the strength of their love to declare it to the world, no matter what the criticism, gossip, or controversy.