"Stories that aren't often shared but should be told"
These women will share their deeply personal stories. To help inspire and encourage you to live life to your full potential.
Many people live through challenging situations and hearing other peoples stories has the power to help heal and improve lives.
If you have not gone through these experiences yourself, it may help you to understand someone close to you.
Motherhood - The chapters that aren't in the manual
Being dyslexic, and late diagnosed autistic and ADHD
Becoming a Mum was always something Sarah wanted / dreamed of. Sarah met her husband Nick in her late thirties and became a mother for the first time at the age of 38, to their beautiful little man Stanley.
Then they got pregnant just over a year later with their little girl Sophia, their family was going to be complete. Unfortunately, not all dreams have happy endings, but Sarah wants to share with you how a broken heart can still beat, a broken heart can still love and most of all a broken heart can move forward.
Sarah Platt is a full time New Zealand artist of 2O years, with a background in primary school teaching. She and her husband have raised three kids.
In 2021 Sarah published a book of her personal journey ‘On Being Dyslexic’. She takes readers through the ups and downs of struggling through the New Zealand schooling system for 13 years, and how she managed to get through Teachers College.
Recently diagnosed autistic and ADHD, Sarah says she feels she finally has the full manual to how her uniquely different brain works.
Entrapped to Enlightened - A Journey of Family Violence Survival
Losing weight without losing yourself - lessons three years on from bariatric surgery
Debbs Murray doesn't see herself as a victim of violence, she sees herself as a survivor. She is a māmā of four, a nanny of seven, a partner, a daughter, a sister. Debbs was entrapped in family violence for many years and shares the complexity of loving the person who hurt her.
After 20+ years of working in the family violence sector Debbs now proudly stands in the power of her own story, recognising the multifacted gift of her survival, that she is not alone, that shared experience supports healing, and importantly creates waves of hope.
She is a relentless advocate for lived experience informing all levels of personal, sectoral and social understanding and change. And she raises her voice in recognition that often the most brutal of wounds are unseen, they are those which are violations perpetrated against, and etched our hearts and our Souls.
Debbs now lives in appreciation of her moments of darkness, for they have lead to soul deep appreciation of the light, and enlightenment.
In September 2021, Franzie Doser underwent gastric bypass surgery - a procedure that helped her lose 60 kilos in one year. While this process seemed to revolve around a huge physical transformation, the mental impact that came along with it was even bigger. And certainly more difficult to navigate.
From body dysmorphia, guilt, disordered eating and societal perceptions, to what it means to be truly confident and to feel worthy, Franzie‘s talk is a reflection on what she learnt over the past three years.
Being part of 2024‘s Real Women Raw Stories, Franzie hopes to be a voice of comfort for those with similar experiences, to add a new narrative for those who see weight loss surgery as an “easy way out”, and to share insights into a journey that showed her not only who she is - but how much it took to keep her.