Today we have two guests on our podcast – Kelly Brougham and Amy Swan, the co-founders of Active Families North East.

Kelly and Amy share similar values around community resilience, and the importance of supporting each other along with access for everyone to physical activity, so it’s easy to see why they founded a Community Interest Company together.

Their first careers were different, but it is their shared passion of fitness that brought them together. Like many girls, neither were encouraged to enjoy sport at school, and it was only after leaving school that fitness entered their lives.

Both understand that people are interested in people and started their business when both had young children. Understanding and listening to what people needed they decided their instantly know Kelly and Amy knew what they were talking about, and so the business started.

They’ve now been working in their business Active Families for nine years and have developed lots of different sessions that connect people in their local communities. They’ve developed new ideas including an innovative project that they call the Wellbeing Machine – where they take activity to people in their own communities.

Kelly and Amy also share their new project, developing a device, which was showcased on The Big Idea show hosted by Sara Davies.

They talk about how they have built their reputation through developing their own business skills, ensuring their staff are the right people for the job, and seeking support from business mentors.

Overtime, they have also come to recognise that they cannot do everything themselves, so have started to network with other organizations, leading to successful working partnerships including the Salvation Army.

Take a listen and understand their learnings so you can develop a successful organisation that makes a real difference to the people in your local community.

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Active Families

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/activefamiliesne

Website https://activefamiliesne.co.uk/

Today our podcast guest is Stefan Thomas and we speak about how he lives with Ulcerative colitis and why he is on a mission to break down the barriers about speaking about the “embarrassing stuff”

Having been diagnosed at the age of 27, Stefan shares what it’s like to live with a condition that can, during a flare-up, require him to go to the toilet between 20 and 50 times a day, and also deal with occasional bowel incontinence.

He tells us how he was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and why it’s important to see a medical professional if you see blood in your poo.

Without any embarrassment - having overcome that emotion over the years – he shares what it is like to live with a condition that can, during a flare-up, require you to go to the toilet between 20 and 50 times a day, and also on occasion causing bowel incontinence.

He explains how by being open with the medical profession, they have been able to support him in both personal and professional life. This includes specific interventions when he is hosting events and attending professional speaking engagements.

Stefan shares some practical approaches for how he manages his Ulcerative Colitis. He highlights the importance a ‘toilet for everyone’ makes to his life, advocating all new build public spaces should have these and explains why.

If you are concerned you might have Colitis or Crohn’s or are currently living with it then this podcast is well worth listening to. Equally, if you are worried about seeking support from the medical profession about something embarrassing, then you may gain some confidence to take that next step.

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Stefan Thomas: https://www.facebook.com/stefanthomasdotbiz/#

https://www.stefanthomas.biz/

Our podcast visitor today is Debbie Gilbert, a serial entrepreneur.

Listen to Debbie share how her life took her on an amazing career journey and find out how she has supported lots of women to pursue a career that works around their lives.

She talks about how she left school at 16 and worked for British Gas where she spent a year working in Customer Services – where people often shouted and screamed at her. Debbie says this prepared her for whatever life has thrown at her since.

She shares about the difficulties of having to care for her father, who had young onset dementia; her mother, Multiple Sclerosis and her ageing grandparents, all will also being a single parent with a young child.

This is when Debbie set up her first business, using the skills she’d previously gained, and her personal network, juggling her time and using all the hours in the day.

After the death of both her parents and grandparents, Debbie went on to establish other extremely successful businesses including a; network company, marketing business and business exhibition organisation.

Debbie has also written two Amazon best seller books, hosts a successful podcast and has won multiple national and international awards.

She highlights the importance of ‘flexibility’ and how incredibly important this is for entrepreneurs, alongside the need to identify and work with “your tribe” of experts and trusted advisors.

Listen and find out which of her helpful tips, accumulated during her 27 years of running her own businesses, could help you to establish your own successful organisation.

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Debbie Gilbert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debgilbert/

Our guest today is Dr Nasser Siabi OBE, CEO of Microlink PC.

Nasser talks about his early years, growing up in Iran and how his eyesight impacted on his learning, and how he lacked confidence because of this. However, when he came to England and began to study at college, he quickly grew in his confidence when he realised that it was his sight and not a lack of intelligence that had held him back.

Importantly for him, his father who didn’t go to school yet had an entrepreneurial mindset encouraged his children to work hard, and they all reached a high level of education. Nasser says his resilience comes from his father.

The other thing that helped him was his memory, because whereas he couldn’t see the blackboard, he could remember things well. He was once asked by his teacher after a mock A level exam how many of the 150 questions he could remember, so that they could make a note of them for the next year’s students to practice – and incredibly, he remembered 130 of them!

Nasser is passionate about how we educate young children. Instead of holding them back in education because they are dyslexic, or have a disability that means they struggle with Maths and English, we should focus on the abilities that they do have. Many people who have had learning issues as children have gone on to become great scientists or doctors – they have potential; we just don’t unlock it.

He shares how he set up his company Microlink PC and how he completely changed the way that students with disabilities were given computer equipment by the Government system. He realised that they weren’t actually being supported at all. The changes he made had a huge impact on many young people, which he talks about with, not surprisingly, great pride.

He also talks about how he thinks that for everyone, across all generations, ethnicities and backgrounds, working or being involved in something that gives your life a purpose is what makes the difference, not just making more and more money. Helping others, even if only in a small way is what counts.

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Our guest today is Lindsey Byrne who is a cognitive health coach. Her career path has been varied and during the pandemic her business fell apart and she had no income.

Already in a stressful situation, she was also trying to help her parents move into a retirement village. Lindsey had noticed her mum’s memory had started declining a few years earlier, and after the move, Lindsay met someone who told her he had reversed his symptoms of Alzheimer’s through natural processes. Lindsey goes on to explain this process. After spending time talking to him, she looked at the things he’d suggested and she came across Dr Dale Bredesen, a US doctor. Impressed by his work, she got her mum on as much of the Bredesen protocol as she could.

Lindsey talks with passion about this protocol and how it is possible for so many of us to follow it, and how just cleaning up your diet can have a huge impact on your health.

She has now trained as a Bredesen health coach; one of only five in the UK.

Lindsey also explains what Brain Health actually means. Our brains are attached to our bodies, so whatever is good for your body is good for your brain. A good diet is key. She recommends the YUKA app where, while shopping, you can scan food product bar codes and the app will tell you what’s in there, and recommend healthier options.

A great tip Lindsey shares how you can gain huge benefit by changing one small thing at a time and if you make it a habit that you repeat - all the better. So when you want to create a new habit, add it to something that you do regularly anyway eg. Clean teeth, followed by a single press up. You clean your teeth every day plus you’ll also be doing a press up each day. Over time you’ll probably want to do more.

You can contact Lindsey Byrne on Email: hello@thecognitivehealthcoach.co.uk
or take a look at her website: www.thecognitivehealthcoach.co.uk

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Our guest today is Debbie Marshall. Debbie is Managing Director of the Silver Marketing Association and also Chair of Trustees of Dementia Adventure.

Debbie tells us about her early life and her incredibly successful, varied and interesting career. This has included studying French, generating advertising for Coronation Street, working her way up from a ski rep to CEO of Crystal Travel, establishing an airline company, creating Silver Travel Advisors and now leading Silver Marketing Association.

We discuss the importance for every generation to follow their passions. Debbie talks about creating Silver Travel Advisors at the age of 50, and provides some brilliant tips about the reality of starting your own business.

In her current role at Silver Marketing Association, she describes why marketing to older people needs to change and highlights why intergenerational communication is so important.

We discuss the ways in which the Silver Marketing Association are working to support the media industry to become Age Inclusive through market research, white papers, webinars, networking and campaigning.

Debbie provides some fascinating examples of age inclusivity from different countries, including the cutting-edge work being carried out in Manchester.

Take a listen and understand more about exactly what Age Inclusivity is and why its something we should all be embracing.

You can email Debbie Marshall at debbie@silvermarketing.org
You can find out about the Silver Marketing Association at Silvermarketing.org

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Today’s guest is Mike Wilson, organizer of March of the Day ll in support of the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation an event that starts on the 21st of March.

Mike tells us how he became a charity event organiser, after years working in financial services. He describes the company he runs with his brother-in-law, Redwood Events Woody and highlights the transferrable skills which help him raise charitable

He explains how his passion for fundraising events started with his “Mad Auntie Ruth”, and how after her death he was conscripted to be the president of the branch of Save the Children where she had previously been the president.

When he and Woody started Redwood events, they were involved in arranging many different types of events for local charities and then worked with larger corporate charities raising funds for charities like BBC Children in Need. They developed an approach of walking from football ground to football ground or from sports ground to sports ground after Mike’s dad organised a charity walk to Oval cricket ground when he was a young boy

Their love of football introduced them to a lot of ex footballers and ex sports stars. This is how he became a friend of ex footballer, Stephen Darby and has been involved with raising funds for the Darby Rimmer charity to support Motor Neurone Disease (MND) from its conception.

We talk about MND, the various stages and how it affects people. Also, how the fundraising money supports awareness raising, provides people with grants to help fund the equipment they may need, and fund novel medical research.

Mike shares some great tips about fundraising for charities and honing what you do to improve it year on year.

To date Mike and Woody have raised ~1.3 million pounds, and they are hoping to have reached a total of £500k for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation after the March of the Day 2 event..

Listen to hear about some of the footballers involved in this year’s March and find out how you could get involved to support MND.

You can contact Mike at

Darby Rimmer MND Foundation https://darbyrimmermnd.co.uk/
Redwood Events https://www.redwoodevents.co.uk/

Find out more about March of the Day II https://www.redwoodevents.co.uk/march-of-the-day-2025/

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Our podcast guest today is Maxine Linnell. Maxine first tells us about her fascinating career, including working as psychotherapist for 30 years, alongside many other interesting teaching and facilitating positions. She trained in humanistic and Buddhist psychotherapy, and specialised in working with trauma. In her 60s she fulfilled her childhood dream: her first book was published.

Maxine talks about her close friend Kate, who died with Alzheimer’s during lockdown. When she recognised some changes in her own mind, she was determined to get a diagnosis quickly. She describes what happened to prompt this decision. Luckily, she got an appointment with a consultant neurologist. That was incredibly helpful: he was very respectful, he was honest, but he didn’t write her off. This consultant’s attitude was all about helping people to maintain their lives and carry on as normally as possible.

She talks about how scary it was after that initial diagnosis. She describes how she spent time preparing for what might come, and how she began to withdraw and lose her confidence about what she could do.

But then she explains how she made her big decision that she wasn’t going to withdraw from life. She describes how she continues to write, and how she has become a dementia advocate and activist. She shares how dementia has led her to be more outspoken, less diplomatic and to use writing to help dispel the myths people believe around dementia.

Maxine also shares her thoughts on the word Dementia and Alzheimer’s – and how she doesn’t like the way many people treat those with dementia. She finds it very helpful to be part of the dementia community where she meets other people who have dementia. But she thinks that everybody in society should treat each other with respect and care.

She describes how she has organised her world to live with dementia: she uses Alexa to help her remember what she has planned for each day, she has learned to recognise how some of her senses have changed, and sometimes she’s able to keep calm when something might scare her. But most importantly, she says understanding what’s happening enables her to make choices.

Hearing Maxine talk about her life with dementia is both moving and inspiring, and leads you to her vision: rather than think that everything someone living with dementia feels is a symptom of dementia, it’s important to listen deeply, to empathise and respond.

If you want to understand more about how Maxine lives with a diagnosis of dementia, we would encourage you to read her blog and poems on her website https://www.maxinelinnell.com/

You could also read Knowledge is Power, published by Innovations in Dementia. This booklet was written by people living with dementia, including Maxine. It is for people living with dementia, to support you in living as well as you can.

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/