Just over a week ago I had the privilege of being interviewed for a Podcast. And not for the first time.

Being interviewed is not new to me. Throughout my career I was interviewed numerous times on a range of midwifery issues, professional and employment related. I’ve been on the breakfast couch, sat opposite Jenny Murray on Woman’s Hour, been interviewed by the BBC, ITV, Sky, Talk Sport and even the Islam Channel.

I’ve covered the frivolous to the serious. I did a number of BBC local radio interviews following Robbie Williams comment on watching his child being born: “It was like watching my favourite pub burning down”.

Doing local radio was an interesting experience. I’d sit in a tiny pod in the BBC for an hour being transferred from station to station answering the same questions with the odd curveball thrown in.

But being interviewed was nerve racking. I could never anticipate how well I was going to do. On most occasions I was articulate, knowledgeable and able to answer everything that was thrown at me. Even those questions intended to derail me. I had been well trained by my organisation. But on a few occasions I stumbled. I was incapable of getting my points across. And I never knew which version would turn up. Fortunately it was usually the former.

You always knew you had done a good interview when the press officer contacted you to do more of the same or you were commandeered as you left a recording studio.

So it was when I did what was going to be one of my last big gigs. Back in 2018 Jeremy Hunt, the then Secretary of State for Health, announced an additional 3,000 more midwives. I was on-call for press. Normally, such a big midwifery story would have been covered by the CEO but she was away so it was me that was picked up and driven to the BBC studios. And then to ITV, and then to Sky. Answering the same questions, making the same observations. Fortunately it went well.

For these interviews I needed to know my facts. I needed to get my main points over in the first few seconds. We all get frustrated when a politician doesn’t answer the question being asked but that is how you are trained. To say what you need to say irrespective of the question.

But it was never about me. It was about the issue. So different from the Podcast I did a couple of weeks ago which was all about me, my experiences and my passion.

A few weeks before that I had been interviewed online for a podcast ‘Me, Myself and my Vagina’. Caroline, a PT with the police force, was doing a series of podcasts on why women exercise but she was struggling to find a woman in her 60’s to interview. She mentioned this to a mutual friend who replied ‘I know just the woman’. A few weeks later we did the interview. It was an audio recording so I didn’t have to be concerned as to how I looked nor did I have to stray from my couch. I just spoke about the importance of exercise in my life.

The second podcast was a little different. The interviewer was Gillian McMichael. Master Coach and owner of Full Circle Global. I’d undertaken my training as a coach with Gillian’s company and over the years have shared with her my love of all things fitness plus the health challenges I’ve had to overcome to continue with my passion. It was this that she wanted to capture in the podcast.

This podcast was going to be recorded in a studio. I needed to prepare myself to be in front of a camera and get myself to London Lock Studios. But it was an interview that I didn’t need to prepare for in terms of content. No stats, no political arguments. Just my experience. I was going to enjoy this.

And I did. From sitting in the recording studio, cameras and microphone on to being led by Gillian through my professional background as a nurse and midwife, discovering my passion for fitness, being diagnosed with a heart condition and recovering from open heart surgery. We touched on the sadness of my best friend dying as I returned to normal life and how I was once again derailed by an overactive thyroid.

I was able to talk about the 60 for 60 that I did in the last year of my 50’s and the 70 for 70 I’m doing in my 7th decade. Unfortunately, when Gillian asked me what was on the list I forgot the three Welsh peaks that I’d completed back in 2019 and I’m always reluctant to mention climbing Carrauntoohil as my pronunciation has been questioned. But I did mention competing in Hyrox.

It was at times a little emotional. I had a tissue clasped in my hand just in case I became a soggy mess. I didn’t but the tissue was required. Hopefully, expert editing will spare me.

A wonderful experience. Gillian is an amazing interviewer so I feel very privileged that she wanted to include me in her podcast catalogue. I’ll let you know when it it goes live.

P.S. The photo of me is 6 years old. It was the image used on the magazine features that I wrote.