Just Women Talking Shit
Just Women Talking Shit is your go-to self-help podcast for real talk on personal & spiritual growth. Hosted by Jacquelynn Cotten, personal evolution mentor & founder of Spiritual Support System, this podcast features juicy interviews with badass, one-of-a-kind women. We dive deep into the good 💩, bad 💩, weird 💩, & life 💩, offering insights & inspiration to help you live a more authentic, fulfilled life. Join us for relatable stories, expert advice, & practical tips on overcoming challenges, building resilience, & embracing your true self. Tune in & start your journey towards personal evolution today!
Just Women Talking Shit
The Revolutionary Journey of Natracare: How One Woman Susie Hewson Changed Feminine Hygiene Forever
When Susie Hewson watched a TV program about chlorine bleaching in paper products in 1989, she never imagined it would launch a 35-year journey revolutionizing feminine hygiene. As founder of Natracare, Susie transformed an industry by creating certified organic, compostable period products free from toxins and plastics at a time when women entrepreneurs faced extraordinary barriers.
The environmental impact is striking—Natracare customers prevent plastic equivalent to a blue whale from entering marine environments annually just by choosing sustainable products. But Susie's fight extended beyond creating alternatives; she faced corporate lawyers attempting to silence her advocacy and banks refusing loans to women entrepreneurs. Through persistence and unwavering integrity, she built a company embodying her personal values while educating consumers about hidden dangers in conventional products.
Particularly alarming is Susie's revelation about regulatory oversight—agencies like the FDA don't conduct independent research but rely on industry-provided data to determine product safety. This explains why harmful ingredients remain on shelves for decades before being recognized as dangerous. She urges consumers to look beyond marketing claims for legitimate certifications like the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), warning specifically about "bamboo" products that undergo toxic processing despite eco-friendly marketing.
At 72, Susie embodies the benefits of conscious living with "the cardiovascular system of a 35-year-old." Her journey demonstrates how one person's determination can create lasting change, not just in an industry but in how we approach our health and environmental impact. Through Natracare's "Be Kind" project and commitment to donating 1% of turnover to environmental causes, she reminds us that meaningful impact often starts with simple, thoughtful choices.
Ready to make healthier choices for yourself and the planet? Visit www.natracare.com to learn more about certified organic, sustainable period products and join a movement that's been challenging industry standards since 1989.
Where to Find Natracare:
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/natracare/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/Natracare
Website | https://www.natracare.com/
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And we all, you know, we all think you have to make big statements and make big things. You know to you don't need to get on a, you don't need to get on a Greenpeace ship and sail to the Arctic to save a whale which is fabulous to do that. But you can, you know, you can support. You can support the notion that we don't need so much plastic because it's polluting the ocean. You know, just for us, like all of nature care pads are compostable and our pant liners are. They're certified compostable and we went through a lot of science and testing with an external agency to prove that. But we know that you know, in a year, for the amount of products that we sold, that in a whole year of just you know, if you were just buying nature care products and using nature care products, you prevented what is effectively um plastic the size of a blue whale going in to our marine environments. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to.
Speaker 1:Just Women Talking Shit with your host, Jacqueline.
Speaker 2:Cotton, jacqueline Cotton. So I was reading, I was reading up on you before before we hopped on, and I feel like I'm in front of a legend. I have to hear all the things. Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your company? I know you're a founder of a big company and you just mentioned maybe some big things are happening. I don't know, but I can't wait to hear all about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, yeah, I'm Susie Hewson, I'm the founder of Nature Care, and that started way back in 1989, which was a campaign that I initiated to raise awareness and bring about change in the use of toxic chemicals and synthetics and plastics in feminine hygiene products. And in order to do that, in order to design those products, I had to create a company, because prior to that, I'd been all sorts of things I trained as a graphic designer and I did postgrad in education so I could teach. I also was a fitness instructor for 17 years and I had two young children. Both of them are under three. So I just suddenly thought I had this big idea that I was going to make a difference by making industry change their minds about how they produce things, and when they didn't. That was where I was going to step in. I was going to design my own products, and so that was where I was going to step in. I was going to design my own products, and so that was the. That was the idea, and it came to me in the uh after a tv program that I'd watched about the use of chlorine bleaching in the industry all paper products that left contamination in our environment of dioxins, which is carcinogen and also remains in the products. But this is also at the same time, around this time, that toxic shock syndrome was hitting the world. So there were lots of things that I needed to I was campaigning to raise awareness of, and there's that moment where you decide well, if no one's going to do anything about it, then I'll have to do something about it.
Speaker 1:That was, that was the beginning and the formation of the company, and actually this, this is my, this is my my home. I I work in an office, um, not too far away from here, where our logistics and and all my staff are in the UK and in the US. We're in Colorado and um and in Ontario, but I was in this office for 10 years on my own, believe it or not, um, and working for nothing, effectively. So everything that um that came from the, from the company, was put back into the company. So this is like my.
Speaker 1:I only returned to this state of being in this office, um, during covid and I suddenly thought I know everyone's working from home and it was a big stretch. I mean. I thought, well, actually I feel quite comfortable, I've done this before, I was ahead of thought. I know everyone's working from home and it was a big stretch. I mean I thought, well, actually I feel quite comfortable. I've done this before. I was ahead of my time. I was working from home all the time when it wasn't the thing to do, so it just felt, yeah, I'm just back in my, my, my clear space. So, and we are, we're not a huge company where we're classified as an SME. There are only 22 of us in the uk, um, there's, uh, in north america, there's six or seven. Um, so we're we are. We are relatively a powerhouse of women and a few men I love, I love all this so much.
Speaker 2:First off, you just made me feel like a baby. You said you started this in 1989 that's when I was born.
Speaker 1:I wasn't even born then probably 1989, and uh and it was 19.
Speaker 1:It was 19, I think it was, 1995 or 96, when um we eventually got uh got on to to access to to an internet site we could dial up and we designed our website and most of the people that we were communicating with were mostly men in research positions in universities and research places, because they were the only others who could we're at the end of the Internet, I guess with help, to spread the word amazingly, and that was kind of six, six years or more of working outside of any kind. I mean it was libraries and telephones. There were no faxes, we didn't have a printer, they weren't home use printers, so the world was different. But you know those problems still need to be resolved. So I guess it's a lesson that you don't need big tech around you to solve a problem, you need resolution to do it and you know the sort of energy and wherewithal to find where your assets are, where your resources are, and just keep throwing yourself at it until you bring about change.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. I mean, I know I'm like I feel like I'm still very new on the entrepreneur journey, but I feel like you were an entrepreneur way before. It was cool. Like everybody wants to be an entrepreneur now, right. Like they have no idea the actual blood, sweat and tears that go into it and it's the most expensive hobby ever. Like you were saying, you didn't pay yourself. It's not a good lifestyle choice, usually, is it?
Speaker 1:If you are on a wellness, saying you didn't pay yourself. It's not a good lifestyle choice usually is it? If you were on a wellness scale, you'd say, well, is that a good wellness? Is that a lifestyle choice? I would choose. Yeah, it is. You know. Someone says that you can't choose to be an entrepreneur. Someone tells you you're an entrepreneur. Those who think you know, those who are doing it, are just plowing ahead on our route to where we aim to be and hopefully avoiding all the sort of pitfalls and trip hazards that go along the way on that journey and learning from it.
Speaker 2:And hopefully taking that knowledge on. You said hopefully, that's the word y'all. Hopefully, because I can't even tell you. You know, like you will come in contact with the most wild situations and it'll test you and like there's morals, there's integrity, like it is an entire spiritual experience, in a way and that you said it is a journey that you can be.
Speaker 1:You know, that's where we're. Our integrity and our morals and our objectives and obligations to nature and to women's health is that. That was our steering path. We've never changed from that an ethical, transparent, functional, realistic option to what was, you know, working on those those road, road systems, asiders. So, yeah, you have to make those decisions along the way and especially when you, like you say, when you're a new company and finance is, um, it is a problem, can be a problem. I mean I, I being a woman in business, again, you're lucky in that, you know, women have moved forward. Thankfully, we've all moved forward together in that when I started, the banks didn't want to listen to me. You know they didn't want. I wrote business plans and they didn't want, they weren't happy to want to offer me, you know, a loan or any kind. There's no investors, it was an overdraft. I was going to want to offer me, you know, a loan or any kind. There's no investors, it was an overdraft.
Speaker 2:I was going to say wasn't, and I just learned about this, probably maybe six months to a year ago, but I don't know. It was like not too long ago that women could even get credit cards on their own right.
Speaker 1:You had to have your husband be on everything. If you didn't have a husband, where are you going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like some of us don't. What does some?
Speaker 1:of us out here don't need a husband. No, it is, and that is how I mean. God forbid that we ever go back to this kind of scenario where women are treated as second-class citizens or incompetence or you know not. You know too too hysterical to make sensible choices. I I mean women in business, in science, in the arts. We've kind of trodden this path to make society see that and come to understand. What we already know about ourselves is that we are competent, brave women that can achieve whatever we want to. Women have gone into space, you know. We've had women who've done, you know, legal challenges that have been phenomenal. We've had women who've done the most incredible surgery, who invented all sorts of solutions to ill health. We have the way and the power.
Speaker 2:Sometimes the means are not given to us yeah well, they're taken away from us it was, it was for sure, a man's world. We know that. But like you sitting here and you telling me that you started this, like this idea came to you and began in 1989, shows that like the strides the strides you have seen, so much advancement it's got a. It kind of blows my mind. I always wonder. I want to touch base a little bit more on the company and feminine products and stuff like that, because I have an 11-year-old girl, turning 12. And I just literally learned last night through a client's account who's a cycle syncer she helps with womb health that there are different kinds of pads and that you should probably have all of them. And I'm just like there are obviously all these things I don't know. And then health wise, I have some questions.
Speaker 2:But I'm curious because you have gotten to see the different phases of, like entrepreneurship you were talking about how, fact, like fax machines, I remember fax machines, I remember having to copy everything and like I remember the dial-up and I remember floppy disks. Okay, so I remember some of it. But like, how are you, what is your perspective on all this? I think all the time, like when I look at my children, I really devices are so common and I don't want it to be common. So I'm curious if, like my perspective is like that, like let's get back a little bit more to nature and get grounded and like away from technology, what's your perspective? Because I know you've seen it both ways yeah, I've got two boys.
Speaker 1:Um, my boys were growing up now but, um enough, I wouldn't let them have phones. I mean, they weren't smartphones back then, but it was. You know, it was phones and I didn't want them to have a phone. And actually they acquired a phone before I even knew they had a phone. They were probably around maybe 13. But you know, they could have some access to the Internet. We were controlling it.
Speaker 1:But now I mean I'm not against tech. I mean my husband's a computer scientist and a mathematician, my oldest son's a biochemist and my youngest one's a musician and a squash player. So I think that it's a balance in technology is a resource. You know, humans have been on this planet for a long time and we've evolved with the use of some kind of technology. And I know, for way, way, way back it might have just been a stick, it could have been a stone.
Speaker 1:So technology is a tool. It's not, it should never be seen as a replacement for our own ingenuity, our own adeptness at using, you know, our fingers and our eyes and our voices and our minds. So I don't see technology as an evil, I see it as a tool. But it's recognizing the limits of that tool in as much as the limits that you need to use it without replacing your own skill base and your own growth. So it becomes more and more difficult.
Speaker 1:Obviously because you know social media is a huge thing and you know one side is an amazing thing. That's connected up communities across the world talking to each other, passing on ideas. You know even our surgeons who can do surgery over the Internet with robotics. So I mean you're reaching parts where there never would be a doctor, so there's so much that we have to be thankful for. There never would be a doctor, so there's so much that we have to be thankful for. But it's recognizing for me, for me personally it was with my children is that when it becomes a useful tool to make things uh, make to allow you to progress your own skills and abilities and knowledge, um, use it as a tool, don't use it as a, as a sort of walking stick like a crutch, yeah, like the second nature.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, I like that perspective. I'm very grateful for it. I mean, look, I was trying not to interrupt, but I'm like, I mean, that's how we got here, like through social media through the, this amazing connection of the worldwide internet. I didn't ask I feel like you already said it but where are you based right now?
Speaker 1:I'm here in. Bristol in the southwest of England, it's South California.
Speaker 1:We're on the Atlantic just virtually on the Atlantic, the North Atlantic. So, yeah, we're in the southwest of England and we're sort of it's a fantastic place. I wasn't born here. I was born in the Midlands, in Nottingham, in the southwest of england, and, um, we're sort of it's a fantastic place. I wasn't born here, I was born in in the midlands, in in nottingham. You know, the home of robin hood um, yeah, that's cool to be able to say that, yeah, I'm the home of robin hood um, and made marion, of course, um. So you know, the southwest is this region where I am is is much. You know. It's the arts we have. You know the BBC nature programs are all based here. Itv, there's film studios, it's the creative arts, it's two universities. It's a place where you can come and develop and be and no one goes. Oh my God, what's that? It's a place of personal expression and maybe outspoken views.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, what's the cost of living?
Speaker 1:It is a bit expensive down here because everyone wants to be here. I think Bristol was this year classified as the best place in Britain to live. Um, and so a lot of people most people go to the universities. After they finish. A lot of them I think it's something like 80% stay in the area.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's a lot of those are jobs and, you know, in the arts and sciences and AI and tech. You know it's, it's a good mix and we have a huge, um, uh, diverse population as well. So you know, we have that that benefit of all cultures mixing together and and learning from each other. So it's a cool place to be. I like it oh my god.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know anywhere else it sounds. It sounds amazing. If you I mean you speak highly of it and you've been there a while. It sounds like so okay, because on my bucket list I got to get pardon my French, the fuck out of Mississippi. I'm in the United States and so like I get to travel, like I'll be in Chicago, illinois, next week and I've gotten to do like some little mountain trips and the plan is to buy a camper. I pulled my little my daughter, out of homeschool I mean out of school and homeschooling her and just really trying to like preserve her innocence.
Speaker 1:I think you know, and I think, rather than the view of preserving innocence, I think it's more. It's more a case of strengthening up the, the, the resilience, because you know if you, if you're not resilient, it's easy to be lose your innocence. I think, and what you're doing is fantastic because you know if you, if you're not resilient, it's easy to be lose your innocence, I think, and what you're doing is fantastic because you're giving it that oh, I love that, every I love that when I tell somebody this and the people around here might not get it, but it's just really good to like get that confirmation.
Speaker 2:But what I was saying was oh god, what was I saying? Oh, gotta get out of Mississippi, right? So I'm making an effort to do that and take her and like I want to take my son here and there, but he's littler so it'll just be a lot harder.
Speaker 2:And he's got his dad here and we have three other boys, so we're a big blended family. A little backstory, so any of this that's a great team, so it makes sense. Thank you, um, but I want to get out of the country and so all of over there like I want to see it all, but every time I get on like a chat with somebody so bristol I've not had anybody say, oh, like bristol is amazing. I haven't heard about bristol yet. So my question is long story short, where do I go? When I go to bristol, like what's, what do I have to say? What?
Speaker 1:is the time of year you come. I mean, you can say Bristol is at the top or the, the hub of the southwest of England. So, um, if you come in, uh, june, is it June? End of June you can go to Glastonbury. You go to the music festival. Um, there is, uh, the harbour festival.
Speaker 1:Around bristol, in north of us is bath. So if you like a bit of regency stuff, there's, uh, you know, the jane austen vibe and roman baths and the minerva fountains, um, a rat, but in bristol it's this culture, it's arts and music and food, um, and, and we're quite a small city and you know we're in a, you know we're focused on 260 degrees countryside around us. So, and then the coast. So you know you can go surfing. Actually there's a surf lake just down the road from me. It's called the Wave. I can walk and I can surf Absolutely and great coffee afterwards. So there's a surfing lake and great coffee afterwards as. So there's a surfing lake.
Speaker 1:Um, we've got, you know, there is whatever you want, um, that will give you a sort of you know, a broad cultured exposure to things that bristol and the southwest has it in shed loads. I mean, you go into devon, south devon. You got the coastal footpaths um beaches down into cornwall. You got on the north. You got the rugged cliffs and the smashing atlantic waves and surf. You got on the north. You got the rugged cliffs and the smashing Atlantic waves and surf. You go into the south coast a little bit more gentle, sandy beaches, nice and warm sort of. You bring your VW, camper, van and park up and go.
Speaker 2:You were like just spewing off all my life dreams.
Speaker 1:Right now we're welcome we welcome everyone in Bristol. We're a welcoming community.
Speaker 2:Susie, I think I want to be like you when I grow up. Yeah, you're welcome, thank you. I take that as applause. You're just so awesome, you, you are. You're very like, chill, very chill, relaxed and just I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think you know I like you a lot you go in when you are in a business. I mean, I've had a lot of challenges in this role. You know the things that I was talking about and continue to talk about around, the issues of the products, kind of you know what's in period products, even just you know some that are claiming to be natural. I've got issues with them. Or talking about toxic shock syndrome. I've got issues with them. Or talking about toxic shock syndrome. I mean, I've had, you know, I've had run the gambit of lawyers who, from the corporates, who want to close me, close my voice down, and I'm I pride myself on, you know I've never said anything that I could never do in court. You know, truth and transparency is what we're about. So I've taken, I feel like you know, in this agenda to bring this to all people who bleed is that I've had to take on not just the challenge of setting up a company, creating a product, production, distribution, getting you know people to stock the product, getting consumers to trust and buy the product. I've also had to sort of, you know, remind people that there are products out there that also tell you they are the greatest thing for you, but actually they're not telling you the full truth. It's a simple it seems like a simple idea to do something, but you have to be prepared to take on your challenges and your stone throwers, many of which came from the corporates who, you know, did not like that. I was shaking the, you know, the menstrual periods category and speaking the truth. So I feel like I, you know, I wear my battle scars on my body for all women out there so that they could. You know, this category never existed until nature care came into the, into this area for many, many, many years, you know, at least a decade and a half, maybe two decades. So I was fighting a battle on my own, um, but it, but it was, you know, it was, it was. It's a bit of a verdict. I suppose I'm doing it for us, um, and that that is what keeps me going and that's why I'm still doing it now.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, there's a lot of money in the industry. There's brands being bought up here, there and everywhere, you know, and um, uh, you know there's a lot of products. I made many products. I mean we, we manufacture all our products in europe and our raw materials are sourced from Europe. We're certified compostable, we're certified organic, our tampons have got certified organic, our wipes are certified organic. We're doing the right thing for nature and for transparency. But there is, you know, there's other stuff out there, that is, you know. I think this is a cool market to be in. Let's do a bit um and that's you know. That's.
Speaker 2:The ongoing challenge is making sure that we keep the category clean and pure yes, so one I want to commend you because as as a so I I'm a business coach and a client attraction coach, so like my jam is marketing um and and helping women who want to lead movements. You know very similar to what you're doing. And so I just got to stop for a second for all the listeners, because think about how many women are out there who have a vision and, like you were saying, well, nobody's doing it. So I guess I got to do it. Don't ever do it or like too scared to do it, because it's so easy to not begin if you can't see it in, like your physical 3d yet.
Speaker 2:And what I've really grown to love and I think, believe fully and just I'm super committed to, is the belief that it's not about you'll like you know that saying, well, I'll believe it when I see it. Like you took this idea and this passion from your heart, like you knew what was right, you knew what needed to be done. And it's not like 89. I was born in 89. That's what I was trying to say earlier. Susie, you've been doing this for a minute. Like that is such a beautiful commitment into. Like the integrity is there. You're still doing the right thing. I'm just oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh gosh, you're amazing.
Speaker 2:And then the second thing, because I just know so many women are out there like on the fence or just they don't, they don't go after the whole enchilada because it's just them. I'm sitting in my closet right now, okay, but like, thank you, but the vision, like my vision, is so big I know that this podcast, so I like I won't stop until it's big, until it makes a big impact, like I know it's making an impact. And it's okay that it's just me in my closet at first it was me on my bed. So we move, we're leveling up, okay you know you see my picture behind.
Speaker 1:Can you see the picture on the wall? I can. Who is it? My mother and my father. And that was taken in about in the 1950s, probably mid to 1950s, and my my mother started as a seamstress. My father built, you know you see, these pictures of guys on top of steel, like the Empire State Building. My dad did that. That's terrifying, that's terrifying.
Speaker 1:So you know I came from, you know, quite a poor working class family in the Midlands. And you know, over the time my mom trained to become a nurse, my dad, if he didn't have a job, busked on that accordion. He would go in the streets and busk to make make sure there's food on the table. We only ever cook, you know, raw. My mother cooked from raw veg and meat or what I mean. I'm vegetarian but my brother got fat on me but, um, yeah, just to give him the meat rather than suffer the. The swings and arrows of my mother's eye are being cooked.
Speaker 1:But the education because of, you know, my access to education, I was able to move, you know, I guess, move myself out and up, never away, because these are my roots. I'm never ashamed of my roots. These are my roots. This is what you know, this is the soil that I came out of and I remember those roots. So when you have an understanding of why you're doing something, where you've come from and how far you've come in each step that you do it, it reinforces that, that sense of I can't even think of a word for it there's so many words in the English language and there's thousands in other languages I've never been able to come to but it's that sense of, of, of ha, I feel right. And that's that's where, when you have an idea and you, you get yourself, you know, prepared for it. You plan, you, you do your research and make sure you've got the right finances. You're not going to put your family at risk with taking risks that you can't. You can't, you know, pay for that you. It is that next step and and I never have it said that because you come from somewhere that's not expected to be a place that you should be doing this things.
Speaker 1:You know that that imposter syndrome thing that many of us suffer from, and especially amongst women, is that never take that as a sort of you know, a stop sign. Just you're, you're achieving so much each day when you stride through that. When you say no, no, goodbye to that, don't tell me I can't do something. This stuff needs to be done and I have this idea and I'm going to go with it. And I think women are well prepared for that. They have rational brains, you know. They can do their own internal risk assessments with that, you know right. But I always say write it down.
Speaker 1:But we have that as women and uh and and really that that, that sort of that missing thing is sometimes that we expect people to say to us well, you're doing right, you're doing okay, but really we know when we're doing right and when we're doing okay. So it's it's. We accept that we have this power. Um, and it's only ourselves that stop us from achieving what we want to achieve. I mean, I'd say I come from a very poor working class background and I was able to socially climb because of opportunity through education, opportunity through the jobs I did in the past, my business.
Speaker 1:But I also never forget that you know we we are part of one percent for the planet. So one percent of our turnover goes back into environmental and social projects. So we also know there's no good making, there's no for me personally I'm not saying everyone should do this, but there's no good making money if it's not doing some good. And for me, I feel that what, as a business, what we're doing is good. We're doing good by producing a better product for women in the environment, but also a large proportion of the profits is going back to other good projects that allow other people to achieve good and change. So it's, you know, it's a part where women are part of a of a an ingenious economy, because we have this personality also within us to care and nurture. So by being successful, we're also helping others to be successful.
Speaker 2:I love that so much. I love that so much. What I'm taking away from that is, regardless of where you come from, if you get curious and you just I think that's the big thing is like leading with curiosity and everything and how you feel and where you like question, why am I the way I am? Oh, let's just get curious about it and kind of like remove the judgment and shame. Right, I love that you took advantage of the education and it's I try to tell people this especially. I mean I say I try to. I've quit trying.
Speaker 2:Like you can make these gentle suggestions like oh, this is a great book. Or you know, I listened to this podcast. But like people are going to find it and receive it when they're ready for that, for the change. But I like I tell my kids and I tell my clients, like if you just get curious and you just I don't know open a book or find a podcast or just somebody you resonate with, you'll get curious about more and then, before you know it, like your brain is just evolving and it's expanding and you start to like increase your self-worth, you start to hang out with different people and but yeah, I resonated with that. I know that it's a little bit different, but um, I think I learned all sorts of things I mean.
Speaker 1:I mean I've been fortunate that I was. I was given the opportunity, you know, and I was. You know I was blessed, I guess, with a with an inquisitive brain, and I was able to. You know I loved, blessed, I guess, with an inquisitive brain, and I was able to. You know I loved learning, I loved being at school. I mean, some of the stuff they were teaching me was I might have some disagreements about some facts in history.
Speaker 1:That's part of the learning process, isn't it To learn how to rationalize about information that you're given. But there are also situations, you know, in nature, you know, in scenarios with other people, where you are learning incredible things. Itpaid work in the volunteer sector. It'd be billions, billions. That could be someone who's looking as a carer, someone's looking after a friend, a parent, a relative of some kind, someone who's helping out at a school with you know kids read, or you know helping in garden. That the whole volunteer sector is is worth a fortune and all that people are are given is their time and their experience and their knowledge, and it doesn't have to be knowledge learned from a book. It can be, you know, experiences that you can share and and and and pass on a skill that you can share, and pass on a skill that you know you've learned over a long time.
Speaker 1:It's easy to be, you know, as an education person. You know someone who also has a postgrad in education. It's easy to fall under the spell that everything that's good comes from a book, everything. There may be some great things that come from books, but we mustn't also dispel the fact that there's great things that come from having experience in, around and around things, going out and helping. You know, if you're, if you're, into nature, you can join the conservation corps or similar and going to help lay hedges or learn how to restorative agriculture by going out in a community garden. Um, you can learn about caring for people by just assisting, you know, with people who needed help and care. So it's, there is personal experiences. That is also a great educator, um, and that that that's, you know, often not considered as a as a wealthy thing to to own yeah, I hadn't.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess I have thought about the. So for me it was like you know, I loved getting around people who were doing what I wanted to do, so like intern or like do some free projects and stuff like that, or spending time with older people was something I really enjoyed doing. But coming so being raised in the South like bible belt south, we were we were raised.
Speaker 2:we were raised to be very um is like as servants, I guess you know serving the lord and whatnot, um, but anyhow. So I love that you point that out, because a lot of people do forget about, like the volunteer work and just putting yourself out there and then like what comes to those connections. One it's you're doing something great, but I guess a whole new environment and you learn so much and I didn't even think I don't know. Thank you for saying all that. I'm just going to be quiet. That was really great.
Speaker 1:I'll just leave it where it is it makes you feel good too, because you know doing things for others makes you feel good. It makes you feel, you know, fulfilled, that you're doing something worthwhile. And I guess you know 35 years of doing it. You know why are you still doing it? Because I still feel that I'm doing something worthwhile, because there's so many challenges to overcome. You know I can help people and you know there's some you know other companies or other women that are a startup in business, not even related to it. Or given a loan to someone you know through the loan exchange systems or their organizations in, say, in Africa, where you can have a loan organization, you can give a woman you know $45, and she'll turn that into a business and then pay back and their kids are educated. There's all sorts of ways that you can, you can make. You know your small, small pots of money or small amounts of skill pay back in a big way. Um, and that's really.
Speaker 1:Apart from nature care being a product, um, it is a concept that came from my heart. You know it came from, you know everything about nature care, that is, nature care is me, um, which is might sound a bit weird or maybe a bit precocious, but it it embodies all the things that are important and and to me and I care about and I feel um has integrity, um, so I hope that people, when you know if they're buying nature care or they're seeing nature care and they know that that they are sharing in that and and and the payback to through one percent for the planet and there are other organizations outside of one percent the planet that we, you know, give financial support to and and aid that you, you are, you know, I guess I'm saying is that it's the power of the purse. Um give is is how you decide where your own hearts and support is going and learning about products and services and companies and where that money that you're handing over what is supporting is quite an important consideration, and so it's the same when you're setting up a business or a service is to understand that that people need to feel that when they give you their money, they're supporting something that they can hold their hand up to say I'm really proud. All think we have to make big statements and make big things. You know to, you don't need to get on a, you don't need to get on a Greenpeace ship and sail to the Arctic to save a whale, which is pretty fabulous to do that.
Speaker 1:But you can, you know you can support. You can support the notion that we don't need so much plastic because it's polluting the ocean. You know, just for us, like all of nature, care pads are compostable and our pant liners are. They're certified compostable and it went. We went through a lot of science and testing with an external agency to prove that. But we know that you know, in a year, for the amount of products that we sold, that in a whole year of just you know of, if you were just buying nature care products and using nature care products, you prevented what is effectively plastic the size of a blue whale going in to our marine environments yes, out. By making that choice, you're basically helping to keep that environment that blue whale needs to live in pristine. You can make a difference by just thinking about the choices that you make, and there's so many conscious choices across all the consumer market services that you can make. It just takes that little bit of time to sit down and do your little bit of research.
Speaker 2:It's okay. This is wrapping up and tying together beautifully, because I want to talk about, like, first off, your products, being in America. That's where I'm going to start. You already know, probably, that America's regulations, like all the things you know, organic, but there's so much out there. There's so much out there that it's hard to know. Like you were saying earlier, I have to time think that I'm buying a great product, like it's saying organic or like da-da-da-da, but if I really stop and look, I don't really know. I feel like I'm buying the marketing. Look, I don't really know. I feel like I'm buying the marketing.
Speaker 2:So, one having a young woman who I want to make sure that her hormones are okay, that she's able to, if she wants to have babies, be able to reproduce. I want her to be good, I want her to be as natural and as feeling herself as possible, right Versus. I was put on birth control at a very young age. I was, I've been using tampons and all these things and my hormones are all kinds of fucked up, like I'm 35 just now getting hold of my hormones. So what, like your products sound great. Are they available in america?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, we've been there since 19,. Well, we've been. Our non-applicated tampons and all of our pads have been there since 1991. And our applicator tampons since 1992. So, as you said, regulation tampons are registered, are regulated medical devices? Well, actually, pads are. They're a lower class. You, you know, you have to be registered. Um, we also have a um, we're a quality. Our quality system has to, has to be such that it meets the regulations. So we're, you know, I can give you all sorts of isos, but so we're a medical device regulated company manufacturer. So, yes, all the regulations are met, but the regulations do not. You know the fda or health. They never, they don't do their own individual research. Know that number one. They're a regulatory body and they rely on the industry to inform them, to provide. You know their own, you know curated research as to what's safe and effective.
Speaker 2:Are you saying I did not know that?
Speaker 1:No, they don't do their own research. They're never using public money, using your money, to do that. Um and so so know that you know, and there's, there is an organization that you know is there to, obviously the fda, and like health counter, are there to protect there to protect you.
Speaker 1:They're not there to to do to do their own research. If you might pass your mind back. Um, there was a lot of publicity recently uh, back in back into last year about heavy metals in tampons. We do precautionary tests. We don't use any processes or raw materials where there would ever be heavy metals in our products, but we still do precautionary testing because every year, because where we we take the precautionary route, what if you don't look? You don't look, you don't find, if you don't aim to look, how would you ever know? And we put our results on our website. But it was quite clear that there were many I think it was on a Barclay their research. That's another fact for you. Barclay Castle is not too far away from me. But the fact that there is heavy metals in the process that is then left in the product is a concern, because some of those heavy metals that were detected in many products that were also certified as organic.
Speaker 1:When you're looking at organic tampons, there's two things to know. One, there is the growing of cotton to an organic standard, which is a sort of like for America it would be USDA, for Europe it would be to the European regulations. If you were in Turkey, it would be to the Turkish government regulations and they're all governed by an overarching organization called IFO to make sure that those agricultural standards for organics meet the same criterion standards. But then it's processing. So how is that product processed? So if you're processing the cotton to no known standard, how do you know that cotton ends up in your product comes from an organic farm? So the global organic textile standards is that processing. It's the only standard that is approved by the USDA. So nature care tampons are certified to the global organic textile standards. So that's from farm to end of processing. So you know, for tampons, look for the global organic textile standard. It's a little green logo but it'll say GOTS on it and there's a whole load of standards in there, not only just for production and processing. There's all sorts of things that are not permitted and are tested, independently tested for, but it also there's also a component of environmental and social care in there. So they make sure that the people who are working in these you know if they're producing cotton or dyeing stuff or processing they're not being exploited. So if you're buying something China, unless it's a global organic textile standard certified product, you're probably not going to know a lot about what those standards are. So that's number one For our pads.
Speaker 1:We use certified organic cotton. We use FSC and PEFC, which is a process for how wood is grown, is grown. Our forest is managed ecologically, is processed without chlorine of any description. We use um. We use home compost certified biofilms as a barrier. That's made from plant start but the whole product is then certified compostable so you can put it in industrial composting. You could actually put in a domestic compost bin but it would take you a bit longer than it would in industrial composting. So looking for certifications outside of a government regulation usually gives you more than the state's giving you. The state systems is basically the minimum.
Speaker 1:So the fact that you know toxic shock syndrome went on unchecked for so long was an argument over what causes it. Is it the absorbency? Is it the fiber type? Who decides? Is it the industry? Generally, the research comes from the industry. The only independent research that's been done conducted into toxic shock syndrome and the types of fibers used by you new york university med school back in the mid 90s, and nature care products were the only products in that research that they could not generate the toxin that creates toxic shock syndrome.
Speaker 1:So there's sort of safety issues around a product, there's performance and there's quality At the end of life. You want to know that when you finish with the product it's not going to end up in a landfill or it's going to get washed down the rivers and out to sea or if you, you know, if you burn it, you're shoving a load of dioxins and toxins up your chimney stack. So there is, there is a lot of things to consider, but there are very few organizations that um within a state system that would would give you that it comes from external agencies. Um, the environmental protection agency, you know, is governed by. You know this. Obviously that can change depending on the politics of the of the time, but for me, um I, because I've been in an american market for a long, long time, I I hear that people will put good stead by European regulations because we have European cosmetic regulations, we have safety regulations for production of end products. So do your research, but don't rely on the state as a stamp of what is good.
Speaker 1:Look for the global organic textile standard. Look for the global organic textile standard. Look for, you know, an independent accreditation that that is, is valued across, across markets and in that way, you, you, you can be sure that you are avoiding the kind of processes, pesticides, heavy metals, pfos you know we'll. Pfos are, like you know, the latest, the latest monster, the latest Frankenstein that you know those of us who are environmentalists have known about. This has come in for decades. But if so, if you wear, if you choose to buy you know period underwear, you need to look at what they're made from, because you know pfos is is part of the material, the processing that makes them waterproof what is that saying?
Speaker 2:what are you saying pfos?
Speaker 1:yeah, they're they're basically, uh, they're fluorochlorians. They basically they're they're called forever chemicals. They're, um, they stay in the environment in the I mean you're probably drinking it. I mean it's so pernicious in the environment. In the water, I mean you're probably drinking it. I mean it's so pernicious in the environment it's almost impossible to get. And such now that, um, you know teflon pans, you know they. They contain the same fluorocarbons that are absorbed into your body. So we're probably all highly polluted by now.
Speaker 1:Because when you come back to regulatory things, when you rely on an industry to tell you something safe based on your own research, you know what is there for the regulatory industry. Okay, you've told, showed us. We're not going to go and check it ourselves because we don't have the money, we don't have this, we don't have this, we don't have the probably technicians to do that. We'll, you know, we'll look at the safety and effectiveness. We'll review it over Now. Now these things have been in the environment for so long, the agencies like the FDA and Health Canada and the European Union are looking at the safety of these ingredients and saying, sorry, we're going to ban these fluorocarbons because they're, they're everywhere and they're creating you know, they're creating life-changing, life-ending conditions. So where do you? I mean it's the hodgepodge, because, yeah, I've known that the regulatory authorities, wherever they are in the world, are not looking after consumers.
Speaker 1:Independent organizations that are having the ethos of looking to protect nature and to protect health are the organisations that are most likely to be looking at the impact of these products. So, made Safe EWG in some instances. You know the Women's Voices for the Earth, although you know, in some places there have been products that have been raised as being wonderful that turn out to be, you know, contain heavy metals or contain fluorochloric chlorine. So it's look for the validity of the certifications that people have got. Are they just a made up thing? That, you know, is greenwashing. Greenwashing is the term. You know it's greenwashing. Greenwashing is the term or is it? Is it really something that's independent and has real science behind it? Because we shouldn't take these things. We shouldn't take these things lightly, because we're lathering stuff on our bodies every day and you know, the skin is a great organ for absorbing into the body, I mean that's, and we women use so many products, so we're a great we're a great.
Speaker 2:We're a great body of consumers. Oh, yeah, they. I mean just consumerism in general, is it really blows my mind how addicted we are as humans to products and needing something so instant. So I have a. I have a couple of questions before we close it out. And that is so. Look for that, look for the GOTS certificate and that's green. It'll be green and I'll look for a picture and show everybody. But so we're looking for that. What are we like trying to stay away from? I'm seeing like scented tampons, like all these weird I don't know. It feels unnatural in a sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to our tampons. You know some tampons are labeled as organic. That also, if they're, if they're all, if they're certified to the organic to um, um, it's the ocs organic content standard you can. You don't have to be 100 organic to be to have the ocs. You can have what. You can have a synthetic overwrap, you can have a synthetic string. That's why I say look for gots for a tampon. Okay, in pads, um, again, you know they may make. They may contain uh, regular plastic, petroleum-based plastic.
Speaker 1:For me personally and I stand with the Federal Trade Commission on this the use of the term bamboo as a natural is a fallacy. Bamboo as a material is viscose. There is no definition for bamboo as an independent fibre fabric. It's actually viscose. And the FTC. Just last I think it was last year or the year before independent fiber fabric, it's, it's actually viscose and the and what? And the ftc, these? Um, just last I think it was last year, the year before um find a couple of companies um, uh, that uh, millions of dollars for making claims about bamboo as being natural.
Speaker 1:You know better for the environment. It's a. It's a product that is derived from bamboo that uses horrendous chemicals to process it. So, whilst it might be nice to grow bamboo in an environment, as long as it doesn't become a sort of you know a crop that is now quite valuable and therefore it's grown less naturally. The actual process of getting from bamboo to make a fiber is highly toxic. So you can go look at the FTC ruling on the term of bamboo. They can't call it bamboozling and actually you can be prosecuted for making natural claims for bamboo.
Speaker 1:So I would say that you know bamboo is, you know bamboozling is the ultimate in greenwashing and that it's a natural material. So you know, look for organic cotton, natural material. So you know, look for organic cotton. And you know the resources for the product have come from managed, sustainable resources and you can see the track, the trailing for it in their certification of where it's come from. So washables, reusables, are fine as long as you, you know, make sure that those washables don't contain materials that also have um, fluorocarbons in them and and and the instruction to wash them three times before you use it. Please think of the environment if you need to wash those products three times before you use them for your own safety. Those, those fluorocarbons, those fluoroclorians, are being washed into our water system to remain there forever. They shouldn't be there in the first place.
Speaker 2:When you say washables, are you talking about, like the inserts or the little cups? I don't understand. You can get period underwear.
Speaker 1:You can get pads that are washable. Look for an organic, washable product and and one that you know has validation. That it that it doesn't contain PFAs, because there have been cases that the Women's Voices for the Earth called out where products were claiming that they were they didn't contain PFAs and when tested they did, because they're buying them from. Many of these products come from China. So you know, chinese people are amazing, creative, productive people, but you can't always trust that the state. You know the validations that come are actually valid, and we know, you know from the work that's been done that you know bamboo is not a credible material, um, and you can't call it natural. So, uh, but yes, you can. You know menstrual cups, um, but again, you know, don't treat them, as you've still got to be conscious that there is still risk for toxic shock syndrome using a menstrual cup, um, so you just need to be, you know, not let your guards down, but it's what really suits you, and you can have a whole mix of them if you're traveling and you don't, you know you, I mean for nature care with compostable. You can bury them in the ground, um, bury them deep around, they'll compost. But if you want to take, um you know a washable or a reusable, make sure the place that you're going to that the water is potable, that it's clean water, that you can wash them in, don't you know? If it's not clean water, you don't want to be, you know in. So there are all sorts of considerations that you have to think about. It's time and place and purpose, um, but, yep, you know, with this there is I mean we, we are available across america in natural product stores whole foods, whatever and we're also available online. Now we've now got an e-commerce site, um, so you can go shop at naturecarecom amazon. We're on amazon too. Um, I mean, there's there's no reason why we're not accessible. Um, but I think you really have to look at you what your own personal choices and what your needs are. Um, I mean, we have dry and light inco products as well, which is for, you know, sneezy moments, as we call it um, I'm actually people think about folks who have linear light stress incontinence as being old people, but it actually is the highest instance between women of 18 and 25 um, especially for repeated cystitis, or. I mean, you know there's this kind of thing um that you know we have sneezy moment pads too. So there is.
Speaker 1:You know, there's a whole load of things that came out of my journey, um, that tried to address. There's so much plastic in these products. I've got to get these products and design them without the plastics and without the chemicals, and then I suppose for me, our final part, in short, is that in this time times that we're in at the moment, you know, the biggest resource that we have is our own kindness, kindness to others, and we probably found that during Covid that all we could give was kindness and support to each other. So for the past couple of years we've been running our Be Kind project and you can go to our website at naturecarecom and you sign up, and it's not, you know, there's no, it's just a way of reminding you that each day you can do something to be kind to yourself and also, if you feel so inclined, to be kind to someone else, and that might be, you know, a friend, someone you don't know, or just something in the environment.
Speaker 1:So nature care is a product. It is not just a product, it is as I said, it's it's my whole life, out there in a package of several packages. But the giving back is his intention is to make, make our world and ourselves better for it, because the one thing that distinguishes us from anything else is that we bleed every month, and when we stop bleeding every month, we think about how we look after our sisters, who need our help, because we're then, you know, probably older and maybe grandmothers and looking after the children. So it's a part of our, of what is special about us and unique about us, and, um, as you have, you rightly pulled out that we need to take care of our health, because there's not really any other organizations out there who care to take care of our health for us. They're just, it's just a marginal nod to it rather than a yeah, an in-depth view.
Speaker 2:So oh yes, I again back to the whole america thing. We gotta get. We gotta get it together, man, because I I feel like we're just when I say we just the the whole system is in the business of just keeping people sick, treating us like numbers, and I'm just so. I'm fucking over it, susie, I'm over it it is that you're looking after yourself.
Speaker 1:And I think I mean I, probably my parents, you know, um, they, they didn't have the benefit. And I, we know Britain's got a national health service and you've got, you've got, you know, your care system. That's on its teachers. But but you know, there's nothing. We always used to look to america that that you know. Let's look at americans. They're so well, maybe this is not a good point to say, but we used to look to america and say, look how you know americans, you know, especially, especially this time where they know it's expensive to look after poor health, that they have this mindset of looking after their health so they don't have to face the bills of poor health. Um, and that seemed to us to be a very american thing, and you know it takes two years for what happens in america to filter over to to britain as a concept.
Speaker 1:So you know, in the 80s we had all this like, yeah, we're all going to take care of our health and we're all going to be healthy, but we, we have the benefit, we have. Well, we say for the benefit of a free health service. So we do pay, you know, we pay a national insurance, but but it's free at the point of access, of need. But there is also that that when you, when you and I, and I think it's the most thing one of the things that makes us British, to be honest and but it's in trouble because it's not. You know it's so much. There's so much ill health. You know it's so much. There's so much ill health. There's so much unhealthy people with obesity and diabetes and alcohol abuse. You know effects of drugs. You know people who smash themselves up driving because they're driving crazy. That puts pressure on that health service. If we can step back and say let's just take care of ourselves a bit better so that we don't need this emergency system, but so much.
Speaker 1:But we know that at time of point now, I had breast cancer in 2019. So I, you know, I'm thankful that I, you know there was a national health service there to take care of me. I know my surgery, my radiotherapy, um, that that's, and I didn't have to worry whether it was going to bankrupt me. Not just for America, but there are other countries around the world where you know there is no ability to seek health care because there is no money for it and that makes your life, you know, troublesome. It makes your decisions difficult. So looking after your health as much as you can, if you have resource to do that, makes the most sense to me.
Speaker 1:Um, you know that's not always easy if you don't have access to good food, you know you don't have access to good water, or you have a, you know, a job that works you 12, 15 hours a day. It's difficult, but that's where kindness comes in. Then we can see we see people around us like that. Let's just help them out. Let a day. It's difficult, but that's where kindness comes in. Then we can see we see people around us like that. Let's just help them out.
Speaker 1:Let's, even if it's just, you know, baking a pie and taking it around to them, or you know, looking after their kids for an hour so they can have a sleep, or this is part of you know, we have to say that we have to take care of ourselves, but we all need to take care of community. We need community because that's what we, as humans, evolved to be. Um, so yeah, in my little nature care way, it's a community of staff of 35 years that we've been trying to do something good and be kind and, you know, change the way that we look at, how we take things out of nature and then put it back in. But we can do this every day. We can do this in our everyday life. Kindness doesn't cost anything, does it?
Speaker 2:Sure, doesn't. I like to say it is free 99. Not 399, free 99, y'all so Free 99.
Speaker 1:But I know well, you know, on your point of. You know we all know what's. You know this is difficult. When there's a political change and we feel like there's not. You know it might not suit us or it might not, it might feel frightening or it might feel, you know, might feel some people may feel joy, but it's it's. It's a very short time, you know time I mean time moves on. I mean I've just, just as in a business in Britain, you know, in the time that I've been in business, we've been through four recessions and we came out the other side of it. You know we came through 2008 when there was a crash.
Speaker 1:You know resilience we talked about teaching resilience. It's something that we all need to learn, because and and and hope that things do change. But what makes things change is our own perspective and the things that we do to help that change come along. Um, and you know, tomorrow's another day. I learned that through my, through my breast cancer and radiotherapy. That, you know, today is a challenge, uh and but, but each day it's, we're winning, we're getting through it and I'll meet whatever comes next and that's, that's a good. I feel that's my, that's my guiding star. We'll deal with this today and we'll plan for tomorrow. Um, but I won't be deterred by what comes tomorrow, I'll just plan a different way the next day.
Speaker 2:Oh, remember that in business too oh uh, full-bodied chills like that was. That was so good, and I want to close it out with just saying that you said something earlier whenever I asked you about your you know your opinion on technology and business perspective, parental perspective, just, I mean human perspective right, I love how you talked about your sons being able to use a computer. We called that the family computer. It took like 20 minutes to get that bad boy going. But I just hope that whoever's listening today and I'm going to ask you because I'm super curious, you've got so much wisdom how old you are oh, wow, I was 72 on December, the 16th just gone.
Speaker 1:Okay you look. But I just want to tell you I I had some blood tests on because I had pneumonia earlier in the year, my mother, my mother had pneumonia, I got pneumonia at all these blood tests. And because I had pneumonia earlier in the year, my mother had pneumonia, I got pneumonia. I had all these blood tests and came up with this kind of genetic condition that I have is two out of three of anticoagulants they can either be called haemophilia or clots and my consultant came back and said oh, we need aggressive cardiovascular management, cardiovascular management. So, being a you know, person of science, I thought I don't even know what my status quo is, because I've been, I've been, I've been involved in sport all my life. You know whether it's any, all kinds of sport, and I gave up squash just before I played premier squash, just before I had my breast cancer in 2019. So I need to know my status quo.
Speaker 1:So this last weekend I hoiked up to the north of England to a place called Tomorrow's Wellness and it's kind of. You have cardiologists, consultant cardiologists and you, basically, I, basically, me, basically, I spent two hours of having my ultrasound on all of my arteries. I had ECGs, I had body mass visceral fat, cardiovascular facility all this. My arteries are perfect. My, my, my visceral fat is perfect. My cardiovascular capabilities were off the scale of excellent and whilst I was on the bike cycling through the hills of Northumberland, on the screen to the killers, um, all your vital signs are on the wall and the cardiology says I have the cardiovascular system of a 35 year old.
Speaker 1:Get the fuck out Susie honestly so, because I've played sport all my life. I've been a vegetarian since I was 11, you know, um, the one thing that I do have is hypertension. So when they take your blood pressure, you really need to see. I got white coat syndrome if you, you know, if you take my blood pressure, it goes through the roof. So you know, and and the the feedback that cardiologists gave to me was that one, I know what my internal systems. They're okay. I don't need to worry about having these two.
Speaker 1:You know genetic things, the things going off in my blood, that what I put in the bank all my life good, healthy eating, exercising, moderate you know this. I don't I drink, I don't drink, I don't smoke will drink, you know, a glass of wine now again, but I, you know, I feel like, ok, I know where I am at now. I've got the internal system of a 35 year old. I must go and do some weight training to maintain my weight, but I was off the scale. I was off the scale of excellent by 25 percent. So that's given that I haven't done a lot of cardiovascular exercise.
Speaker 1:Last year, having had pneumonia, I was pretty proud of that. So I'm not afraid of being 72 people say to me, we don't think of you being 72. Um, I feel you know, I feel that one. You have to keep healthy to keep going. You have to keep healthy for your kids and I've got grandchildren as well, young, young, very young grandchildren.
Speaker 1:But I feel good that, um, I, I've kind of taken the natural route, subconsciously, that's given me that kind of money in the bank to be able to go out and do whatever I want to want and not worry about whether I'm going to have a heart attack or a stroke or you know whatever, because it's the same in everything you do, what you put in the bank at the early start.
Speaker 1:But it's never too late. It's never too late to make things better. And and I was prepared for that, you know, given this genetic condition, that whatever I need to do to stop anything happening, I'm prepared to do it because we women are strong. I think we're strong, I think we're determined, we know we're carers and we carry the weight of stuff. We carry the weight of resistance, we carry the weight of support and we need to be healthy and mindful that a lot of stuff relies on us and I'm very conscious this is quite a lot of stuff that relies on me and I'm glad that I've got the internal system of a 35 year old, keep doing it.
Speaker 2:That's incredible, because I'm 35 and I bet my internal system is that of an 80 year old, Never feel ready to change Well that's what I was trying to get at.
Speaker 2:It was like I wouldn't have guessed how old you are. Never would have guessed it. Not that it's. I wouldn't have guessed how old you are. Never would have guessed it. Not that it's. I don't even consider that old, to be honest, like I. That's what trips me up is when people get offended about. Oh, you asked my age. I'm like you're just asking how many years of wisdom I have.
Speaker 1:Is what I feel like you always get right everything you will learn. You learn your wisdom from meeting other people who pass on that wisdom but you're not.
Speaker 2:That's, that's, I think that was the grand scheme. I was trying to say is like yeah you're not.
Speaker 1:You're never too old like you're out you're killing it, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It's fine, yeah, and you never know how long you got. I mean, I think I'm having the breast cancer. It's just like I'm always lucky. I was lucky in the diagnosis and I have to take oestrogen blockers, which also means, like you know, the protection that oestrogen gives you for your cardiovascular system was also a worry for me. So I've been taking oestrogen blockers, you know, medicated, for five years. How is this impacted? Well, actually, you're all right. Okay, I must have good genes, apart from those other two. Thanks, mom. Dad must be all that dirt. I think it must be all the dirt and poverty that we were all I know there was never any dirt. My mom was like, you know, super, oh, crikey, no, but yeah, good genes. You, you can't help your genes, yeah it is well.
Speaker 2:It was just. I just loved how you ended it. You're like thanks, you're so cute. Oh, this has been so good.
Speaker 1:So thank you and lovely to to talk to you as well and meet you and and I love your cupboard. I mean my cup is a bit posh now because my son's played the piano stick. I don't play the piano. I used to have an accordion but it's just there for show Cause. When they come around they'll play it, but I can't. I might play a few chords now and again, pretend I know how to play.
Speaker 2:It looks really beautiful behind you. Oh well, thank you so much again. I hope that whoever's listening uses this, as you were saying, as a tool to advance themselves, to expand their minds and to, I guess, transcend. You just are such a beautiful story of transcendence and I thank you so much for sharing your time, your wisdom, your heart. Oh, you're incredible and I just feel so honored to have had you on my show. So, thank you.
Speaker 1:You're welcome, and you're always welcome, to the soulful place that is Bristol.
Speaker 2:Girl don't, even, don't joke, I will come see you. No, come, come find me. She said come find me. Okay, yeah, come find me, not bad Look she said come find me.
Speaker 1:Okay, don't try me, not bad, look, you'll get an email when I'm feeling squirrely. Okay, you know how good we are at pushing statues into water.
Speaker 2:I can't deal with you. I can't deal with you. Oh my god, no, I bristol's on the list now you, yeah, definitely you've done messed up. I just mean you're so cool that, like I have to come meet you. You're definitely you've done messed up. I just mean you're so cool that, like I have to come meet you.
Speaker 1:You're amazing, you've messed up you might find me back on the squash court even once I've got these manky wrists sorted out. I know too much gardening okay, what is squash. What is squash? What well? You play racquetball, which is okay, um, and I think paddle balls, paddle balls, it squashes like the smaller ball and the smaller head of racket and you beat the living shit out of the ball against the front wall, until you. It's a very anaerobic activity.
Speaker 2:Oh, we just call it wall ball. I think you call it wall ball, that's what I call it.
Speaker 1:That's what I call it. Yeah, yeah, we taught our kids. My husband played squash too. Both our sons played squash from a very early age. They basically you teach your kids.
Speaker 1:This is, this is my wisdom as a mother you teach your kids to do everything that you want to do as an adult, so you can take them with you and you teach them. You make sure they do the same thing. So you're not going in off. No, you're not doing swimming. If you're going to do football, you both have to do swimming. You can both do football. So we taught them squash, we taught them tennis, we taught them skiing um, but they both play piano. That was just for their own enjoyment. Um, uh, football, rugby, hockey, so, but the things that you want to do as an adult, you make sure they're good at it. Come on, we're going skiing. Okay, now they're all better than us. That's the thing they get to be better than you. And then you, they're always. That's the thing, that's the achievement.
Speaker 1:You know, my husband said because he used to play water polo at university, so the swimmer. And the day that our eldest son beat him in the pool, he was. So he said james, just beat me. Well, he was like 17 or something. Well, that's what you want, isn't it? You don't want to be better than your kids forever, but you want them to be better than you or crestford. Now both actually both kids beat both of us at squash and we both played premier squash. So that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:Well done, well done yeah, this guy hurt the ego just a little bit at first, but I'm glad that they're the number the hours you spend watching hockey, field hockey or or squash and and thinking, oh my god, are they going to get injured? And you're moving with every ball. You're thinking, oh no, don't look it's, it's terrifying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the older you get like it's all I do risk assessment of everything I'm like, analyze and hold on, so I get that but yeah, yeah now now I'm getting wall ball squash I gotta get make sure you wear eye guards okay, well, okay, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Now I know, um, but I'm gonna prep that way I can come kick your ass whenever I meet you. Okay, I'll, be well, I'll be well, I'll be waiting for you because apparently, I mean you can probably kick my ass if you have the internal I haven't played since 2019, um, but I I my cardiology says so.
Speaker 1:He said you just need to go in the gym and do weights, um, for 80 of your workout needs to be weights and 20 can't. Don't you need to worry about cardiovascular way off scale, um, but there's nothing wrong with my muscular weight. But apparently here's a tip apparently when you get to 75 so I've got a bit of way to go yet your body starts to digest your muscle mass for food sources, which is why you see a bit of weight to go. Yet your body starts to digest your muscle mass, your food source, which is why you see a lot of old people of you know bony, because they basically digest their muscle mass. Unless you keep your muscle mass up with weight bearing exercise.
Speaker 1:So, and I hate going in, I hate weight bearing, no, I just despise being in a gym. And if there's nothing to win if you're not playing a sport, what's the point apart from training for that sport? It's, um, yeah, it's so. I'm gonna have to get myself a personal trainer to motivate me to go in the gym, because otherwise I'll find other reasons to get on the bike that is so hilarious, oh my god.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, susan, we gotta go.
Speaker 1:I think we'd stay here all day, have a great life. See you in Bristol.
Speaker 2:You think I'm kidding, I'm going, no, no.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you come, you come, stay, all five of you.
Speaker 2:We've probably got enough room, oh no, no, I was thinking maybe like a solo trip.
Speaker 1:Solo trip. Yeah, sounds like a lot. I've got to do a recce. You might be dangerous. Out there in the wild west the wild west of england they throw statues in rivers. Careful, I've got to go on my own and I'll come back and let you know oh my god okay, oh okay, great to speak to you thanks for tolerating me.
Speaker 2:You know, I can't quit laughing, oh my god. Okay, have a great day, susie. Thank you so much.
