ARE YOU BRAVE ENOUGH? (JO MOSELEY IS)
When I retired from the BBC and decided to live "the van life" whilst travelling around Great Britain to challenge stereotypes of older women and ageism in general, I always wanted to meet adventurous, creative and ambitious older women in their 50's, 60's, 70's and beyond and to tell their stories. shuvonshuvoff.blogspot.com Well Covid put paid to me being able to meet up with people because of lockdowns. So I had to have a good rethink about what I could feasibly do, I did not want to be beaten by the Pandemic.
As I was stuck in one place in my motorhome, a beautiful place I might add, on the North Norfolk coast, where I am lucky I can get out for walks and cycle rides to some beautiful places, I had to embrace technology and bring the people to me. I decided that I would do weekly Instagram lives with some of the inspirational women that I had begun to follow and befriend on social media. I wanted to have relaxed conversations about the highs and lows of what spurs them on to embrace ageing and to do the things they do.
I was thrilled when @healthyhappy50, Jo Moseley, agreed to be my first guest on Thursday night this week. We had the most wonderful evening Talking about her film 'Brave Enough' and her @thejoyofsuppodcast_
Jo Moseley is the single mother of two boys in their twenties and she lives on the edge of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. She describes herself as a beach cleaner, joy encourager and midlife adventurer. As soon as I saw that I was hooked, I wanted to know more about this woman and her adventures.
In August 2019 Jo became the first woman to SUP (stand up paddleboard) the 162 miles coast to coast, along the Leeds Liverpool Canal. She was picking up litter along the way to fundraise for waveproject.co.uk, which helps young people improve their emotional and physical wellbeing, and for 2minutebeachclean, which encourages people to take just two minutes of their time to pick up some litter at a beach or any waterway.
From the moment I saw Jo's face pop up on the screen I felt a connection and it was such a joy to get to know more about her story.
She candidly told me about how she was single handedly looking after her two boys, who were teenagers at the time, as well as supporting her elderly parents and unbeknown to her, she was perimenopausal, when she became overwhelmed by her life and eventually broke down crying in a supermarket. Thankfully one of her friends suggested she take up some form of exercise to help her sleep better. She started on a rowing machine and she says after a few weeks she "found herself again"
Eventually she had her first paddleboarding lesson in 2016 and she has not looked back since, she says that putting on her wetsuit is like "putting on my cape""I feel good, I feel safe"
She initially came up with the idea of the Leeds to Liverpool canal SUP adventure in 2016 but put it on the back burner, due to her lack of confidence. Then two years later, thanks to a meeting with a man in a caravan park, which she amusingly describes, she planned her 2019 SUP trip. Picking up litter along the way, to highlight the use of single plastics. Jo teamed up with a film maker that she had met at an Adventure festival ,@fritstartsat30. She describes how Frit was there most days to capture all the emotions of the trip, even when she burst into tears because she had gone wrong and ended up doing more miles because she had to retrace part of her route. She thankfully did not fall in the canal.
They are now due to premier the film they made called 'Brave Enough'.
If you want to see the documentary film about Jo's emotional journey along the Leeds Liverpool canal and join in a question and answer session you can get tickets from eventbrite.co.uk/e/brave-enough
The premier is on the 25th of February at 1900hrs GMT
She is also planning another screening sometime in March around Mother's Day which will be very appropriate because her film shows a realistic moving and loving view of motherhood.
Because Jo feels that Paddleboarding has transformed her life, she wanted to share other people's paddle boarding stories. That is how at Christmas she launched her own podcast,@thejoyofsuppodcast_
I have listened to it and I can highly recommend it as a good listen.
Jo hopes to train to become a paddleboarding instructor to share the joy of paddleboarding with other women. She says "old is not a bad word, you can make a difference until your dying day and our spirt can be less full if we stop dreaming".
You can see the full interview with Jo Mosley on my Instagram feed @shuvonshuvoff
So pleased I got to read this and His story....will listen to the insta interview now!
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