07 Jun 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:06):
Hi, I'm Ben Choi, Australia's chef de mission for the
2026 Winter Paralympic Games in Cortina. And you're listening to
leisure link with Peter Greco on the Vision Australia radio network.

S2 (00:40):
It's just gone 5:00 and with Katy Perry back in Australia,
we roar into this link here on Vision Australia Radio
1190 7 a.m. in Adelaide, online at VA radio, Dot,
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(01:05):
in Western Australia. Hope you're going well. Other friends listening
to the Reading Radio Network. A big cheerio to you.
And a big thank you to Disability Media Australia for
their tremendous support. You can find out much more about them,
including Measurlink at Powered Media. Media Peter Greco saying great

(01:26):
to be here. This program come to you from Greenland,
come to you very shortly. We'll catch up with Ben. Troy.
Ben is the chef de mission for the Australian Winter
Paralympic team, getting ready to go to Cortina in Italy
next year. Some good news. Coming up, we'll speak to
Doctor Louise Burn, who's a winner of the Australian Mental
Health Prize. Nominations have opened for this year. A chance

(01:49):
for you to nominate someone. Kelly Schultz will join us
from Nobull. Me. How was access for information for people
with disabilities leading up to the election? Kelly has done
a survey. We'll share some of those results. Votes. David
Mitchell will join us there. Health commentator. Creatine monohydrate is
David's topic. We know it can help with muscle building.

(02:09):
Can it help with memory? Dave will have some information there.
We'll catch up with Belinda Helia from Brewed by Belinda
the brew. That is true. If you're having a little
bit of trouble sleeping, a herbal tea may help. We'll
also speak to Madeline Ruskin, who is living with long Covid.
Very important message from Madeline. Madeline will share that with us.

(02:30):
We'll also catch up with Doctor Matthias Udy, who's an
interventionist cardiologist. Talk about heart disease, in particular the heart,
and in particular the valve. It's a story with a
free screening coming up at the Austin Hospital. It could
save your life or the life of someone you love.

(02:54):
Winter Paralympic Games draw ever closer. Of course, it's now
next year or less than next year. Let's chat about
it with the chef de mission with some really good
news in the last few days. Ben. Troy. Ben. Great
to catch up. Thanks for your time.

S3 (03:07):
Yeah. Thanks, Peter. It's great to chat to you and
chat all things winter.

S2 (03:10):
How are you feeling? It must be. You know, you
can nearly reach out and touch it.

S3 (03:13):
Yeah, it's coming around really, really fast. All of a
sudden the days are disappearing. But feeling excited. And as
you touched on, we had some great news recently with
confirmation of quota slots. So it's all becoming real with
just over eight months till we're on the slopes of
Cortina and often.

S2 (03:30):
Do you know how they're going as far as preparation goes?
And in particular with Summer Olympics, it's always so much speculation.
Are there going to be ready? Aren't they going to
be ready, you know, way behind with buildings etc.. How's
Cortina shaping up?

S3 (03:41):
Cortina is shaping up really well. I think it's a
unique games this time around. We're very spread out compared
to other winter games in the past, but the advantage
that Cortina has going for them is of course, they're
using tried and tested event venues are places that have
hosted world championships, places that host the events and snowboard
events year in, year out. So being able to lean

(04:03):
on that, I think has given them a great leg up.
And from what we saw when we were over there
in March recently for the chef de mission seminar, they're
well on track and it's going to be a just
an amazing, fantastic games they're going to put on there
in northern Italy. Yeah.

S2 (04:15):
You talked about some good news in the last few days.
Tell us a bit more about that.

S3 (04:18):
We received one in the game is our qualification allocation
of quotas. And these allocations are earned by our Australian
athletes competing in the previous northern hemisphere. So during the
2425 season, based on results across Australian athletes, we can
confirm that we have qualified for four sports for the
first time ever at a Winter Paralympics, which is great

(04:40):
to be a part of.

S2 (04:42):
Well, that's a testament to the athlete because I know
we speak about this quite often, both you and other
winter athletes. I mean, you spend so much time overseas
because of, you know, we don't have too much winter
in Australia, 100%.

S3 (04:53):
You don't get much winter in a country nicknamed the
sunburnt country. So we embrace what little winter we have
and love it. But our athletes will depart generally October
November and remain overseas till kind of late March, and
that's pretty much every year. And they might get home
once or twice or not at all. So it truly
is a commitment to chase those winter dreams. And it's

(05:13):
a huge testament to our athletes that they've gone away,
gone up against the world's best, and come back to
allow us to compete in those four sports.

S2 (05:20):
It's such a great point you make because, as you say,
it's not just the time away, but away from your family,
your friends. I guess the routine, because even when they're away,
they're doing a lot of skipping from place to place
as well.

S3 (05:31):
Yes, 100%. One day you may be in the French Alps,
next day you might be skipping across to Canada mountains,
and then you're back in Eastern Europe, somewhere on a
mountain that maybe isn't known to people. They do obviously
go to some spectacular places, but also some little less
known for the tourist hotspots where there's some great racing
to be had. So they bounce all over Europe and
then in and out of North America for that season.

S2 (05:52):
You talked about the athletes kind of earning their stripes.
The other thing is that particularly over the time that
we've been competing in the Winter Paralympic Games, Australia does
very well in terms of mental representation. Given the small
number we get take away as far as team members
go and also the the events that we compete in.

S3 (06:10):
Yeah, 100%. We have a very strong history in the
Winter Paralympics. We have been at every one since the first,
which is a great position to have. And then even
more testament to our punching above our weight. We've medaled
at every Winter Paralympics since 1992, which is obviously something
that we hope to continue here in Milano Cortina, and
we are positive of that. But that's a great record

(06:31):
to have and a bit of history for our winter
team to hang on to and kind of punch proudly
in the air with.

S2 (06:36):
Yeah, I know we can't sort of talk too much
about individual selections, but we spoke a couple of weeks
ago to Owen McCarthy, who'd been at Team Processing first
time for him. Very excited. A bit of an eye opener,
of course. What about in terms of the number of
athletes we might be taking away? Can you give us
a bit of an idea there?

S3 (06:55):
Yeah. Look, so as I touched on, we have now
and quota spots across four sports. So that's para alpine,
para snowboard, para biathlon and cross-country which is exciting. We
are hopeful of pushing towards that 15 athlete mark which
puts it in line with our biggest ever Paralympic team.
Obviously there's still lots to happen before now in the

(07:15):
games to hit that mark, but we will be close
to that for sure. And that's a great achievement for
a very summer based swimming nation.

S2 (07:23):
Yeah that's right. Summer and swimming. Uh, they don't have
that at the Winter Paralympics yet. What about as far as, uh,
some new athletes coming along?

S3 (07:30):
Yeah. So you spoke about Aaron, who obviously in snowboard, uh,
leg amputation. He joined the para snowboard team for the
first major season last year, which was exciting. And even
his performance earned him a spot at the World Championships
in Canada, which is great for a first season on snow.
So I'm excited to see his progression over this year
and hopefully he joins us in Milano Cortina. We have

(07:54):
Sean Pollard, who competed in the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics and
took some time off to start a family Who's coming back,
which is great to see. We have a young visually
impaired skier, George Canoe, and her guide Ethan Jackson, who
joined the program a couple of years ago. I've had
a couple of seasons and they're really showing promise as
we head into this Paralympic year. And then excitingly, the

(08:15):
cross-country and biathlon side, obviously, we haven't had any representation
in cross-country or biathlon since 2010. So we have a
group of athletes that have been off forging a new
path in this sport, and we're excited to hopefully have
them join us at David Milne, who's a wheelchair based athlete,
Matt Brumby, who's also a wheelchair based athlete, and then

(08:35):
Taren Dickens, who's a VI skier. So it'll be exciting
to see the three of them face their Milano dream,
Cortina Dream and see that sport back on our program.

S2 (08:44):
You talked about the games being a bit spread out
in Cortina. Does that mean the athletes won't necessarily be
all together at the time that the games are on.

S3 (08:52):
It is correct. So these we will be across two
major sites. One is Cortina which will host the para
alpine and para snowboard. And then approximately two hours away
that over some pretty tricky mountain passes, if the weathers
are wrong, is the valley of Val de femme and
the town of Pedazo, where our para cross-country and para
biathlon athletes will be, so they won't connect that much

(09:12):
during the games itself during competition. But myself as chef,
it's a big drive to make sure we can come
together as a team and keep that one team culture going.
The mob culture that's been so successful the previous games,
so we will 100% have some kind of celebration before
it all kicks off, to come together as a team
and congratulate us for being there. Then everyone will go
off and get what they need to get done, and

(09:33):
then we'll make sure there is a great celebration at
the end where we're all together and can celebrate all
those great achievements that no doubt will come through. The
games are the ten days of competition now.

S2 (09:43):
Did we get some good news throughout the week from
channel nine as well?

S3 (09:46):
100% very good news. Um, channel nine have signed on
to be our broadcast partner for the Milan Cortina Games.
This will be the biggest coverage we've ever had of
a Winter Paralympics. Live free to air. But not only that,
ensuring that all every minute that is available is available
on their apps and catch up options. So it'll be great.

S2 (10:07):
Yeah, that'll be fantastic because I mean, they did such
a wonderful job with the Summer games last year in Paris.
And I know I mentioned this on air at the time,
which I thought was really, really cool in one of their, uh,
ASX announcements of the stock exchange, because channel nine is
a public listed company. They actually talked about the fact
that revenue from the Paralympics kind of boosted their bottom line.

(10:27):
I thought, well, how cool is that? You know, Paralympics
actually making it as far as a business proposition for
a television station to go for a broadcast network, guys. So, uh,
you guys have actually finally made it.

S3 (10:38):
That is a great pick up. I know it is. Uh,
it's showing how far the Paralympics have come, and and
nine definitely set a new benchmark in covering our games
in Paris. And it was amazing to be involved in
that and to know now that they're connected and going
to push those boundaries again in the winter environment is
music to my ears. Our athletes work so hard, and

(10:59):
not only that, winter para sport can be the most
amazing thing you've ever seen, and being able to beam
that to so many more Aussies back here is going
to be amazing. I look forward to working with nine
on the run into these games.

S2 (11:11):
That's the great thing about the Winter games. I mean,
you know, we all kind of know swimming roughly how
it works and how basketball works or the sort of
summer sports. But those winter sports, we don't see them
very often and we kind of get to, you know,
get out of our own sort of sporting comfort zone.
If I can talk about it that way, to find
out what other sports are out there that people can do.

S3 (11:30):
And these athletes, nothing against our summer athletes, I love them.
I am with Tobias for sure, but, uh, my go
to kind of thing of how different it is, is
we have athletes, vision impaired athletes skiing blind at 110km
kilometres an hour down a nice and slope in the
middle of Italy somewhere. Now, that's not something you would
see on TV very often. And when you start to

(11:51):
understand that part of the sport, it really is a
spectacle to see.

S2 (11:54):
But you talked about the meeting you had with the
other chef de mission, so a few months ago, how
did that go? Everyone kind of on track feeling good
about things?

S3 (12:01):
Yeah, it was great. The chef de mission seminar, which
is always held a year out from the games, is
just a great opportunity not only to meet with Milano
Cortina or the organizing committee at the time and see
progress and ask questions, but come together as a community
of chefs and operational people and put our heads together
to make sure we are getting the best for our athletes,
because that's what it's all about. It's creating this experience

(12:24):
and environment for athletes to go out there and do
their best, and it's always good to be in a
room with 100 plus people, or with a shared goal
and focus of trying to make it the best for
their athletes.

S2 (12:34):
Well, I'm sure Cortina next year, 2026 will be safe
for the Australian team with no pressure on you or
any of the athletes then, but I look forward to
catch up with maybe a few of them before they
get off. And also, obviously a team officially gets named.
Great to catch up. We wish you well and that's
tremendous news. More spots available which the athletes have earned,
and also that great coverage by the Nine Network and

(12:56):
also their apps and their on demand services also will
be able to get a good feel of Winter Paralympic
Games when they roll around in March next year.

S3 (13:05):
And do the same thing. I look forward to everyone
tuning in and seeing the great outcomes we're going to have.

S2 (13:10):
Okay, that's the bench right there. He's the chef de
mission for the Australian Winter Paralympic team. As they get
to ever closer to the games in 2026. Well, this
year the 10th Australian Mental Health Prize has just been launched.
Let's speak to the winner of last year, particularly in
the area of lived experience, and speak to Doctor Louise Burn. Louise,

(13:32):
lovely to meet you. Thank you for your time and
a little late, but congratulations on your win last year.

S4 (13:36):
Thanks, Peter. Lovely to be here.

S2 (13:38):
What's it like winning an award like this? You've done
so much work. I've read up a little bit about you.
You've kind of been grinding away at this for quite
some time.

S4 (13:45):
I have, I have it was um, it was a
really funny experience, actually. It was a funny mix of
feeling incredibly, um, honored and validated. Um, but also really
took me back to particularly my teenage years where a
lot of my kind of adversity challenges started. And the
prognosis I was given was that I shouldn't expect to
have a normal life or normal milestones, you know, have

(14:07):
a partner be able to live independently and all that
sort of thing. And so it was very emotional because
it was like, gosh, you know, how far removed is
this from what I was told to expect, you know,
for my life? And, um, it was there was a
it was sad and happy at the same time.

S2 (14:22):
Yeah. No, I can I can totally understand that. And geez,
I mean, what a thing to be told at that time.
You're probably thinking, I've got the rest of my life
ahead of me. What am I supposed to look forward to?

S4 (14:31):
Exactly, exactly. It was one of the stupidest things anyone
ever said to me. And, um, it was one of
the things that fired me up many times over the
years to keep fighting for systems that are not damaging
to people.

S2 (14:44):
I guess that planted the seed, but then you've kind
of got to water it and keep it growing.

S4 (14:49):
You do, you do. And I guess I feel like
I was lucky in a way that I had so
many crappy experiences that I've got plenty to draw from.
But every time, um, you know, my fires start to
dim a little bit. It's like, oh, do you remember that?
So or I have a new experience because, you know,
my challenge is certainly ongoing and, um, in many different

(15:11):
ways with both disability as well as, um, you know,
mental health challenges and all manner of things. So, you know,
I still have adverse experiences in the system and with services,
and it just continues to fire me up.

S2 (15:23):
Are we kind of getting better at it? Your kind
of focus, if you like, are your category was for
lived experience and heavens above. We can't put enough emphasis
on people's lived experience, but are we kind of getting
better in a understanding and b doing something about it.

S4 (15:37):
I'm not sure I'd love. I'd love to be more positive,
but I think overall not really that much. I think unfortunately,
there's been a huge acknowledgement of how poorly the system
and services typically are meeting. And that's not to say
that there aren't exceptions. There are some exceptional services, and
I think particularly where there's a great emphasis on the person, um,

(16:02):
at the autonomy of the person, respecting the expertise each
individual holds in their own health journey. In those places,
certainly there are good outcomes, but overall, the national reporting
and the state reporting is not not indicating that things
are really changing. And I think a big reason for
that is that systems are what they are, and they're

(16:25):
very slow and reluctant to change. And so even when
they're told that things are not working, the types of
brains that are employed to design the processes that have
to happen? And who are in control of designing funding
guidelines and things like that are still the same people
that have been helping the system to underperform for all

(16:45):
these decades. And so until we have significant shift in
the types of thinking that are applied at that level
of development, then we're not going to have really notable changes.

S2 (16:57):
Some of the words that you because I think words
are really, really important, some of the words that you
use and things I've read about you are things like,
you know, this sort of thing needs to be embedded
into the system. Things like authenticity, things like evidence based.
I mean, these are all kind of things that you'd say, well,
of course, but, you know, it isn't.

S4 (17:15):
Of course it's not an of course, unfortunately, even just
the fact of lived experience adding value. I literally was
in a meeting two days ago, Peter, with people in
all the major professions, as in health professions, and it
was supposed to be about a pretty major funding initiative
in a multidisciplinary environment, and the kinds of comments that

(17:38):
they were making about lived experience were as derisive as
the sorts of things I was hearing 20 years ago. Wow.
And it didn't surprise me because whilst the average person
on the street and you know, I don't know how
many times over the last 21 years people have said, oh,
what do you do for a living? And I explain
and they go, oh, that's amazing. I want to see

(17:58):
a peer worker, you know, like, it just makes so
much sense. Of course, you know this. These are people
who've walked that journey who can speak to that. But
our professions, our health professions, whilst there are allies and
those people are just gold and we value them so much.
The vast majority of people are still being trained in

(18:18):
a way that there's no mention made of the lived experience, contribution,
lived expertise, lived experience, leadership or any and nobody even
knows about it until they actually exit and come into industry.
And by that time they've been trained in the expert
patient model, in effectively taking power from people and telling
people what to do instead of partnering with them, and

(18:40):
certainly not in listening to somebody's wisdom about their own experience.
So I think fundamentally, there are things that are not
being addressed in terms of attitudes and willingness that it's
going to take a profound shift, and it's going to
need to start with our higher education, as well as
people who are already employed in the industry.

S2 (19:01):
So in a sense, you talked about, you know, funding
models and programs, etc. so a lot of that money
is being wasted then, because it's sort of being used
in the wrong area or going to the wrong area.

S4 (19:11):
In my opinion. Yeah.

S2 (19:12):
Yeah.

S4 (19:12):
Very firmly I think when we've got the Productivity Commission report, um,
you know, on mental health, we've got the Royal Commission
into mental Health Services in Victoria, and they mimic the
findings of the Burdekin report of the report. How many
times do we have to say no, Not the systems
failing before we actually change the system, because that's what's

(19:35):
not happening. People are not being trained in fundamentally different ways.
The workforce is not being configured in different ways. The
big missing link. Surely any person with the slightest scrap
of common sense can see that when you're talking about
a journey that takes you through distress and pain and
crisis and all of these deeply emotional things, and it

(19:58):
is the emotional, the social and emotional stuff that requires
some sort of shift for things to get better for someone.
People who understand what that feels like are a very
logical and needed component of helping to inform the way
that the system, you know, looks and also being part of,
you know, support services. But when the vast majority of

(20:21):
people employed in positions of power and in other professions
are still not embracing and willing to embed the authentic
perspectives of lived experience, as you mentioned. Then we can't
get traction because we're too new. We don't have the clout.
We don't have the power. We don't have the money.
So we can be there. But we're still being held

(20:42):
at an arm's distance most of the time. And the
real decision making and the real power is still sitting
where it always has.

S2 (20:48):
Now, you talked about training. You've done a bit of
work in that area, as in training people to kind
of understand this sort of stuff.

S4 (20:55):
Yeah, it's been a funny, funny journey for me, actually, Peter,
because I was in actual face to face support roles for,
for a while. And then I did all sorts of, um,
lived and living experience designated positions. And then I was
in research for 16 years. And one of the biggest
findings of the research was that until and unless we
have good understanding, you know, and valuing and respect for

(21:17):
our workforce, then everything else we do is going to
be compromised because we are in emerging, a relatively emerging workforce.
And so the whole rest of the system needs to
embrace us effectively. And the way that that happens, we found,
is through exposure and understanding. And then I started doing
quite a bit of consulting with state governments and with organizations.

(21:40):
And I kept saying, look, the big thing, you need
the big missing link, like you can make all these
plans and you can employ people, but if people around
them don't understand their value and the uniqueness of the work,
why it's there and what it can add, then you're
going to continue to have the same problems. And in
a nutshell, nobody was providing wide scale education to do that. Education,

(22:02):
that understanding piece. And I just got to the point
where I was like, well, our team should do that
because we know about it. We've spent a really significant
amount of time looking at this. We know exactly the
strategies are that help. We know what the messages are.
So yeah, it just kind of developed organically I suppose.

S2 (22:19):
Sounds incredible. And congratulations and more power to your elbow.
I always like to say now we're out of time
for this interview. We could chat for hours and I
will put a link to your website up on our
show notes and also the Australian Mental Health Prize if
people would like to nominate. So I guess given the
fact that you've been recognised, there's lots of other people

(22:39):
maybe not quite as good as you, but I'm sure
there's lots of people out there that deserve this recognition,
at least to be nominated. And who knows, maybe go
before the committee to be voted as this year's winner.
So we put those details up as well. And as
I say, probably would encourage people to if there's if
there's someone out there that is making a difference and
there's different categories, you'd be very encouraging of those people

(23:01):
to be nominated.

S4 (23:03):
Oh, absolutely. And especially folks who are representing lived experience.

S2 (23:06):
Yeah.

S4 (23:07):
Let's, let's let's get that raise that voice.

S2 (23:12):
You've done that so, so well, as I said, we
could chat for hours. So I'm glad we've made contact.
We might have to see if we can get you
back to so many other issues we could have explored.
That's been very thought provoking, very thoughtful, and more importantly,
very much appreciated.

S4 (23:24):
Thanks, Peter. I'd love to.

S2 (23:26):
It's doctor Louise Byrne. How impressive was that? Doctor Louise
Byrne was last year's winner of the Australian Mental Health
Prize for Lived Experience. We'll put details up of Louise's
website on our show notes. And also if you'd like
to nominate someone for this year's awards, it's open. Uh,
we'll put those details up there and I'm sure there'll
be another worthy winner later on this year.

S5 (23:47):
Hi, I'm Emma merritt, a member of the Australian Gliders,
and you're listening to Leisure Link with Peter Greco on
the Vision Australia radio network.

S2 (23:59):
We always enjoy catching up with Kelly Schultz. Doesn't matter
what we talk about, it's always interesting and always relevant.
A few weeks ago, we caught up with Kelly regarding
information about the election and how people voted. I think
the results are in in more ways than one. Kelly,
great to have you back on and welcome.

S6 (24:14):
Thank you Peter. It's always fun. Love a good chat. Yeah.
Well tell us.

S2 (24:18):
For those who might have missed that, you were looking
to find out what people's, uh, kind of impressions and, um,
experience was with voting, uh, this time around.

S6 (24:26):
Yeah, it was voting accessibility specifically. So, you know, our
research is generally focused on people with disabilities, and it
was just about accessibility. You know, we've got this compulsory
voting thing in Australia which a lot of people frown upon. But,
you know, compulsory voting came out of the fact that
we should all have the opportunity to vote. So it's
almost inherently an accessibility thing. But how accessible is voting?

S2 (24:49):
And you've kind of done some digging around or some
asking of people to find out what their experience was.

S6 (24:54):
We did. And that was it was actually before the election.
So we were to find out before the election how
people felt about accessibility in some way. We could do
a follow up to find out how how it actually went.
Some people had pre polled by the time we did
our survey, but lots of people hadn't yet voted. So yeah,
it was it was a it was an interesting mix.

S2 (25:14):
Yeah. What did you ask and what did you find out?

S6 (25:17):
Well, it was absolutely about voting and the process itself
and information nothing to do with their political persuasion or
they were going to vote for. We talked about a
few different things. We talked about overall accessibility and voting choices.
So how people choose to vote. We talked about information
accessibility and the fact that the Electoral Commission obviously does

(25:39):
have some accessible voting options in terms of the information
that you can get about the election. We also asked
people about electronic voting because obviously not something we have
here in Australia, but we're keen to understand whether people
thought that was a good idea. And we also asked
about sort of popular opinion, public opinion and privacy in voting.

(25:59):
So privacy is a big one for people, particularly where
they need assistance.

S2 (26:04):
What did you find out? What was kind of can
you kind of glean something from it all? I guess
different people, different experiences, of course.

S6 (26:10):
Well, I think the headline for me is that 43%
of people have considered not voting because of accessibility.

S2 (26:19):
Wow. There is a headline about that.

S6 (26:21):
That's the the the disability population we're talking about. You know,
what is it, 20% of the population these days. So 43%
of those people have considered not voting because of accessibility
barriers to to vote, and 18% of them have actually
said they have skipped voting, be it federal or state
voting in some way because of the barriers to to

(26:43):
actually get to vote.

S2 (26:44):
You can't compare that with the general population.

S6 (26:46):
Can you know, we don't have a general population view
of that. We're only talking about the the population we have,
which is people with disabilities.

S2 (26:54):
And you have to think that was overrepresented in terms
of those numbers. You think that in the general population,
less well, of course less people would have the accessibility
issue or excuse anyway.

S6 (27:04):
Exactly. So but if you do take so if we
look at the percentage of the the overall population being 20%
and have with disability 43% of those, so we're talking, Walking,
you know, like 8 to 10% of the overall population
is what we're talking about potentially.

S2 (27:21):
Yeah. Which is very, very high. What about in terms
of getting access to information? I've got to admit, I
was okay as far as my, uh, information coming to
me went, and quite in a timely way, but I
don't think that was the the overall experience.

S6 (27:37):
So we did a couple of extra tests on getting
access to information. Generally, only less than 30% of the
people we surveyed knew that there was accessible information available,
and it may not have applied to them. So not
all disabilities obviously have an information accessibility element to them.

(27:59):
But in terms of we did a couple of tests,
we did four different tests of requesting accessible information from
the Electoral Commission following their process. Three out of four
of those were successful and people did receive the information
prior to the election, so that's a good thing. But
the experience of actually getting it wasn't necessarily that great

(28:21):
because of really just training. So to ramp up an election,
the commission's got to find people. Basically, they've got to
find people and train them who are available now to
sit and answer phone calls. But what we would say
is there probably needs to be a little bit more
emphasis on people calling for support to understand what the

(28:42):
accessible information options are.

S2 (28:43):
It's a little bit like suburb lottery, isn't it? Or
a situation where, depending on who you get when you
ring as to what information you get.

S6 (28:52):
That's right. And if someone has heard of it before,
or done it before, or had someone else call with
that particular question. But overall, I think information accessibility is
an interesting one. One of the the sort of insights
and suggestions out of this we have is to make
the accessible information hub more obvious and easier to navigate

(29:12):
because there are there were people who fed back that
there is easy read versions of the information, but it's
not easy read to get there. So it's great that
you've got an easy read version, but how do I
get there to get the easy read version?

S2 (29:28):
It also found in terms of finding out the candidates,
once you got there, it was okay. But again, getting
to that particular point on the website and I must
admit I actually asked have my candidate sent to me
in which they did do and in time. So well
done on that. But I tried before to check out
the website and get the information. As I said, once
I finally got there it was okay, but it wasn't

(29:49):
that easy to get there. Which, you know, uh, I
was gonna say a lesser person, someone who's maybe not as, uh,
obsessive about something like this might say, I'll blow this.
I'm going to just give it away.

S6 (30:00):
And you.

S2 (30:01):
Just. I'll give it. I'll get. Yeah, I'll get someone
else to help me somewhere down the track.

S6 (30:04):
Yeah. So, I mean, your experience validates exactly what we heard,
which is, it's great that you've got accessible things, but
make them even ease more. More easy to access in
the first place.

S2 (30:13):
Anything else from the survey that sort of stands out?

S6 (30:16):
Well, I think, um, particularly for the blind, low vision community,
if we talk about them specifically overall, we ask people
to rate the accessibility of their voting experience, previous voting experiences.
And it was a 1 to 5 question, and we
came out at three, which is pretty understandable overall. But
people with blindness and low vision came out at two, right?

(30:38):
So the blind low vision community actually feel that election
and voting is less accessible than the rest of the
disability community, which I thought was an interesting insight. And
then when we talk about electronic voting, the low vision
community have, uh, far more trust in electronic voting than

(31:00):
everyone else as well. So a.

S2 (31:01):
Fascinating.

S6 (31:02):
71% of our low vision and blind users said that
they would trust electronic voting, and only 7% said they
would distrust it. So everyone else is a bit in
the middle. But are the averages overall the the average
trust was only at 20% of people would trust electronic voting.
So the blind low vision community are much more. I

(31:24):
don't know whether they're more tech savvy or more trusting
of those sorts of systems, or whether electronic voting would
feel like a much more accessible, independent way to vote.
Because if you're using telephone voting, the feedback we got
there was still that. But I still have to tell
it to a person so it doesn't feel private and
it doesn't feel independent. So I wonder, I'm not sure.

(31:45):
I wonder whether there's something about electronic voting that the
blind and low vision community would embrace, compared to lots
of other people.

S2 (31:52):
I think that's it. I mean, as you were going
through that, that would be my sort of instinct to say, well,
this was good. And I've often said, don't let the
good get in the way of the perfect. I mean,
this telephone voting isn't perfect, but it's certainly better than
what other options might be. but I think the electronic
way to kind of feel like you've done it all
on your own and hit the button send and that's

(32:13):
it would feel a bit more like, well, I've done
it all myself, rather than, uh, yes, it's been good
to speak to someone who's taken my vote, but not
quite as secretively as I might have otherwise been the case.

S6 (32:22):
Yeah, and I think privacy is a big thing for
people when it comes to voting. We heard from a
few different people who said, you know, they don't feel
like even when they're crammed in in a polling place
that they that it's private, but particularly if they have
to have someone help them. So even if it's a
trusted person, you're still having a conversation or, uh, you know,

(32:45):
one of the, one of the people we spoke to
needs to sit down to vote. Did you know that
there's actually nowhere to sit down to vote? If you
bring your own chair and you're in a wheelchair, you're fine.
You've got a lower.

S2 (32:56):
Yeah. Great point.

S6 (32:58):
But there's actually they just don't generally have chairs. Yeah.
So if you need to, if you have that sort
of fatigue or a disability where you can walk in there,
but you need to sit down regularly. There's nowhere for
you to vote so people can end up in all
sorts of different places because they need to sit down,
which ends up them not having a private voting experience.

S2 (33:16):
I voted by phone, but I went with someone just
because they had to vote or I had to vote.
They chose the vote on the day at a booth,
and we probably stood around for 25 to 35 minutes beforehand.
And you're quite right. When you get into the booth,
I mean, it's pretty flimsy in terms of, uh, you know,
the cardboard partitions that you got up around you. I mean, okay. Yeah.

(33:36):
Nobody's going to tell you people have to be peeking
in to see exactly what's going on, but you know,
that people could feel a bit, shall we say, vulnerable
or or feel like it's not as secure as you
might otherwise be the case.

S6 (33:49):
And quite vulnerable and sensory overload as well. They're not
exactly quiet places either.

S2 (33:53):
Oh, no. No. And actually we chatted beforehand and you said, oh,
when you go along, uh, ask about how to vote cards.
Would you believe where we went was so quiet? There
were when I had to hand her out.

S6 (34:04):
Oh, no. You missed opportunity.

S2 (34:06):
Missed opportunity?

S6 (34:08):
Yeah, that would have been great. And I think the
other thing, the other thing that I will add is
staff training becomes one of the other elements that is
always comes up in almost everything we do is that
people people and training and almost from both sides. So
it was really interesting to hear from from people who
felt dismissed by polling staff previously, one who the person

(34:32):
at the registration desk turned to their mother and said,
are they pretending to be an adult because of short stature?
You are just atrocious versus someone else who is deaf.
And he just wanted to vote and they ended up
going through this whole rigmarole process of, uh, do you

(34:54):
want us to get an interpreter on a video link?
Can you lip read? What do you want to do?
That sort of overdoing it when really you just needed
to give his name and get his ballot papers. They
ended up explaining to him how the voting process works,
and he said to me, I've been voting for 20 years.
I know how to do it. I just wanted my
ballot papers.

S2 (35:11):
Yeah. Amazing. Kelly, what happens with your information now? What
do you do with it?

S6 (35:15):
Well, I need to put a bit of effort into
writing it out in a coherent way, and then it'll
be up on our website for all to see and
all to take advantage of.

S2 (35:24):
All right. Well, maybe let you, uh, or let us
know when that happens, and we can let people know. Kelly,
great to catch up. Now, if people want to find
out more about what you're doing and how can we, uh,
get in touch with you? What's your website?

S6 (35:35):
Website is knowable. Mhm. So k n o w a
b l e dot. If you want to sign up
that's forward slash sign up. Uh come and join us
and provide your feedback.

S2 (35:46):
Kelly Schulz there from knowable me. Right about this time
the first week of each month, we catch up with
the health commentator, health expert David Mitchell. David, welcome. Good
to be with you again.

S7 (36:04):
Hello, Peter. Hello, everyone.

S2 (36:05):
Well, you're going to talk about creatine and kind of
maybe a new application or a new benefit from it.

S7 (36:11):
Indeed, indeed. And I need to tell a story in
two parts. We're going be talking about creatine monohydrate now.
It goes back to the 70s and 80s. When I
was a young GP and had a great big nursing
home nearby, and had chatting with the matron one day.
She was not complaining, but that wondering what she could do,

(36:34):
the fact that they were needing so much extra staff
at meal times because a lot of the same with rivets.
The oldies were having trouble eating because they were there.
Usually they were so weak that they couldn't grab the
spoon or hold the spoon or the fork or the
knife and whatnot. They had to be hand fed, which

(36:54):
was frustrating most of the people and the nurses. So
put thinking cap on and produced the curiosity cat syndrome.
And we're looking and and found that there was a
compound that's been used for yachts like hundreds of years, uh,
particularly in athletics and in bodybuilding, a compound called creatine monohydrate,

(37:16):
which built muscle. And it was used by athletes to
to run harder or run faster or run longer or
to recover from injuries quicker. And it was used by
bodybuilders to build their bodies, but also enable them to
lift bigger and heavier weights. So they've got the matron
to agree. And sure enough, it did make a difference

(37:38):
that it over the space of of, uh, a few
weeks in some and a few months up to 1
to 2 months in others, it made a considerable difference
that they, they were able to sit up and move
around a little bit better, able to hold the spoonful
and feed themselves, which was fantastic. And it was so, um,

(37:59):
and it had no significant side effects and it was brilliant.
And in fact, at one stage in my athletics career
as a middle aged person, I used it for a
while and it did seem to help. It was for
various reasons, including laziness. I stopped using.

S2 (38:16):
It. At least you're.

S7 (38:18):
Honest. Yeah, exactly. We move on to another 20 or
30 years further on and recent last week, there was
a print out from one of the medical journals. I
get a synopsis every every week on what to do.
This new discovery that creatine monohydrate in a slightly higher
dose can actually be used to start to reverse some

(38:43):
of the effects of Alzheimer's.

S2 (38:45):
Wow.

S7 (38:45):
They found that within two months of taking creatine monohydrate
that they were smarter, they were brighter, they could think
more clearly, and that could be more able to remember
things in the recent times. As you know, and as
it dementia starts, one of the signs is that you're

(39:07):
very good at old memory but hopeless at new memory. Yeah.
And the the wife or the spouse or whatever will
be saying. I just told you that. Oh. You didn't.
So the argument, that's what would happen in the. Well,
they found that this was starting to to decrease. They
were smarter and better. So in looking at it, what

(39:29):
they what they found was that you need to take
slightly more than what the athletes would take, but it
is still safe. So you would take the ten grams
twice a day. Now ten grams is usually the equivalent
of of a dessert spoon. Dessert spoon full twice a
day in water if you're using the powder made a

(39:50):
difference and it so happens that you can buy a
kilo of the powder, which is enough for exactly 50 days,
or in other words, eight eight weeks. That it has
a little scoop. And you have two of these little scoops.
It's a mortar which dissolves very quickly, has virtually no
taste and and no reasonable side effects. So away you

(40:11):
go that by that stage, even people in the pre
creatine monohydrate guys, or in fact the pre summer days,
it's still useful to take it. The reason being that
creatine is the compound our bodies used to make ATP
adenosine triphosphate which is the energy molecule in the body.

(40:33):
And we need stacks of it in the brain and
in the muscles. The muscles includes heart, by the way,
but the muscles, including heart and brain, need lots of creatine,
and we're less efficient at making it from our foodstuffs
as we get older. But I would to take it safely. Suddenly,
the brain snaps in Boing! It starts to work again

(40:56):
because the ATP is like it's the little workaholic that
runs around. So if you imagine the concept of the
the mice running around inside the engine making the engine work,
you've got a whole lot more mice running around. If
you if you've got enough protein and you can take
it safely and easily with creatine monohydrate. But we also
found that the muscles themselves respond in that they get stronger.

(41:20):
So you become more energized, the brain is smarter, and
you're more motivated to do things, and you're better at
reading and remembering, and you're finding that any bruises, injuries
or recovering from operations, you'll find that you have a
quicker recovery. It is feeding those muscles and feeding those

(41:43):
tissues to make it work better. Side effects I had
said before that it's minimal. Sometimes in the first approximately
a week, you may find there's a bit of bloating
or a bit of excess wind coming up the rear end,
or just feel a bit nauseated. Reduce the dose and

(42:04):
it does go away, usually within a week. So keep going.
It doesn't have any bad effects on any other part
of the body, so it is safe to safe to take.
It's safe to take with other medication. One warning only
is that there may be a gain of 1 to
2 kilos in the first month, and sometimes even in

(42:24):
the first week, you can start to notice that there
is that half a kilo or kilo. It's because of
what's called fluid retention that the muscles are becoming pumped
up with fluid, and that eventually goes away and is
replaced with stronger, bigger, tougher muscle. Who say that? Don't
be alarmed if you do it. It's also been found

(42:46):
to help diabetes. It makes because it makes the muscles
more efficient. It also makes them better at storing glucose.
So he's not running around in your bloodstream, going nowhere
and exacerbating the diabetic situation. So it can be helped
in that way as well. It's definitely not for weight loss.
It is more it is about building muscle and building

(43:09):
brain power. So that's again, is why this story in
two parts because you're getting better muscle performance that you're
also getting a smarter, broader brain. And obviously you can
set yourself a little task or a little test when
you first take it and do a couple of simple
steps where, you know, clues or something and timed yourself

(43:30):
or write yourself, how will you do? And then once
a week, once a month, and eventually by two months,
you should be able to notice a considerable difference in it.
If there's none, then don't bother. Don't go any further.
That helps. It is a relatively cheap effect. Two months
a bag of a kilo which lasts you for 50 days.

(43:53):
With this double dose of ten kilos, twice a day
that cost you about 45 bucks from Amazon, you may
be able to do better. You can get in capsule form,
but you need an awful lot more capsules than you
do little tiny scoops of powder. So I suggest you
start with a powder as quick and easy and you
can take it forever in a day. A lot of
people find that when when it peaked to two months,

(44:17):
they reduce the dose, maybe halve the dose, but you
can just quietly continue to take it for the rest
of your life, just as part of your general medical supplementation,
if you like. Really good stuff.

S2 (44:29):
It is creatine monohydrate. That's what it is. Or there's
creatine and then there's creatine monohydrate. Do you know what
I'm asking?

S7 (44:37):
There are a couple of forms of creatine, but the
most commonly sold is creatine Monohydrate, the one that the
one that I use and the one that is most
economical comes from Amazon Australia, and it's the BDP black
belt protein creatine monohydrate, one kilo bags, about $45, which

(45:00):
is excellent, an excellent price. And that's that's a highly
rated and highly refined, well worth taking one.

S2 (45:07):
And I mean, if you've got someone in aged care
or an older person in your family, I guess you
could sort of kind of run it past your GP.
I know maybe sometimes not the most receptive, but if
you just want a bit of reassurance and I think,
in fact, I know you've sent me some information that
we can send on to people if you're comfortable with that. David.

S7 (45:24):
Yeah, we are indeed. Yes, indeed. This is the report
itself or the the study, even though it was in
a small number of people. What was surprising is that
everyone yeah. Everyone improved. That's what really got to me
was when you, when, um, scientists do trials on people,
Who is often a success rate. It's never 100%. And

(45:45):
it's it's usually, if you're lucky to get over 50%,
you're doing well. Well, this trial it may admittedly was
in 20 people, but 19 of them had significant improvements.
The other one didn't take stuff or forgot to take stuff.
So 19 out of 19 improved. That's what got me
excited enough to say to Peter, Greg, hey Peter, let's

(46:06):
talk about.

S2 (46:06):
This as if they give it 4 to 6 weeks
or you got a 50 day supply. Give it that time.
And if you don't see any improvement, well, I guess
you spent a little bit of money, but kind of
nothing ventured, nothing gained.

S7 (46:19):
Yeah, but I'd be saying eight weeks. That's been a
eight weeks. It's been a useful measure for anything that
you take in terms of violence, minerals or supplements that
it's it's by eight weeks. It's the best it can be.
They're not 4 or 6. But keep going to that.
So you finish the finish the bag of. Yeah. And
away you go. ago. But if you will notice all

(46:42):
sorts of little things that are different because the body
itself is just functioning better. So check it out. Test
yourself before you do it. Ask someone that lives with
you or sees you regularly, uh, and see if they
can notice changes and, uh, go from there. But hell, it's,
it's a, it's a good, cheap, safe thing to take

(47:04):
as a supplement. David.

S2 (47:06):
You are wonderful. Thank you. That was fantastic. Now, uh,
we'll catch up with you again next month. If there's
a topic or if there's a a supplement out there
that people have heard about that would like you to investigate.
That's why we pay you the big bucks. You'll go
out and do it.

S7 (47:22):
Well, you you're a wonder, a word, master.

S2 (47:25):
David. We'll catch up next month. You take care.

S7 (47:28):
Bye, everyone.

S2 (47:29):
David Rich Rivera, health expert. How about you? But as
soon as I hear David's voice, it puts a smile
on my face and I feel better. Hopefully it does
the same to you. And information is very valuable as well.

(47:56):
There's the sound of Polly put the kettle on, which
means we can have the sound of Belinda talking to
us and talking about tea. Belinda from Brood by Belinda.
The brew. That is true. 97, a old port road
at Queenstown. Belinda, great to have you back with us.

S8 (48:10):
Thanks for having me, Peter.

S2 (48:12):
Now we're into winter. The leaves are brown and the
sky is grey, and we're getting a little bit of
rain and the plants are dormant. Maybe a good time
for us to think about having a bit more sleep.

S8 (48:21):
Absolutely, yes. The seasons have shifted. And yeah, it's a
great time to think about getting some good rest and
good sleep as we sort of turn inward for the
winter months.

S2 (48:32):
Now, what about tea? I know you're not a medical practitioner,
but there are some keys that are kind of associated
with either relaxing us a little bit more, or perhaps
helping us get a better night's sleep.

S8 (48:43):
Absolutely. They are definitely herbs and petals and pills and
things like that that we can combine and brew up
for a nice, deep and restful sleep. I guess the
first thing is that we're looking for a tea or
an infusion that does not have caffeine, because obviously caffeine
is a stimulant and it's great for kick starting the morning.

(49:06):
But as we move into the evening, the best thing
to do is to steer clear of any caffeinated teas
and choose a herbal brew. And as you say, there
are ingredients that do promote relaxation and sleep.

S2 (49:20):
So if the coffee's got a lot of caffeine in
it black tea, probably less green tea left, but green
tea and even white tea, it still does have a
little bit of caffeine in it.

S8 (49:29):
Yeah, any type of actual tea has caffeine, so whether
that be black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong tea,
pu'er tea. They all have caffeine. So anything that comes
from the Camellia sinensis leaf and it is true tea
has caffeine. So we need to steer clear in the

(49:50):
evenings of all of those styles of actual tea that
contain the tea leaf.

S2 (49:56):
Yeah, I guess it's probably not one herb or one petal.
Kind of fits everyone or suits everyone. And maybe sometimes,
indeed a combination can be beneficial as well.

S8 (50:06):
Absolutely. There are lots of different herbs that promote relaxation
and improved sleep quality, so you can pick one of
those to drink. An example might be chamomile. Chamomile is
going to be really soothing and relaxing for the body
and mind. So you could choose something sort of on
its own like that. Or there are some beautiful blends

(50:28):
that you can create with herbs and some of the
herbs that come to mind and that we use in
our sleepy time. Tea are things like chamomile. Peppermint can
be very kind of soothing. Lemon verbena is soothing. Lavender
is great for promoting relaxation and sleep. So things along

(50:48):
those lines. Passionflower, hops. Valerian root is a very kind
of effective sedative. And again, you know, it is important
to kind of check some of these things with your
doctor if you're having any particular medical conditions or anything.
But generally there are lots of herbs that are safe
and do help to kind of calm the body and
the mind for sleep and improve that sleep quality.

S2 (51:10):
Well, none of those naturopathic clinics often have that kind
of sense of particularly lavender through them, don't they? So
I think that is kind of quite widely appreciated as
being a very kind of calming, relaxing sort of herb.

S8 (51:22):
It is. Yeah. And in a blend it works beautifully.
Drinking lavender on its own can be a bit full
on because lavender is quite a strong fragrance, so it's
lovely as sort of a little complementary flavor and ingredient
within a larger blend.

S2 (51:39):
You talked about maybe some petals or some flowers or other, uh,
sort of condiments, if I can put it that way,
that can help. What are some of those?

S8 (51:47):
Definitely. Chamomile springs to mind as the one that, you know,
I guess everyone thinks about when you think about a
kind of night time tea. But yeah, definitely the lavender
is that other petal. We also sprinkle some blue cornflower
petals through our night time tea as well. But also
rose is very lovely rose petals. Rose is very sort

(52:08):
of comforting for the heart and a bit of a
mood booster. So yeah. Rose is always lovely and a
sweet tea as well.

S2 (52:14):
Any pills that can appeal?

S8 (52:18):
Ah, they don't actually spring to mind.

S2 (52:21):
Yeah.

S8 (52:22):
Sleepy tea. Like, I don't sort of turn to pills
for sleepy tea because often with those that are talking
about like a lemon peel or an orange peel. I
tend to put those in my daytime teas that offer
a little bit of a citrus uplift. So yeah, I
would say herbs and petals is where I turn.

S2 (52:38):
Now, you talked about the fact that later in the
afternoon or early evening, it's not good to have the caffeine,
I guess, with the teas that can help with sleep.
You probably don't want to have them too close to
going to bed for obvious reasons. You might be up
through the night. So what? Perhaps the, you know, late afternoon,
early evening, maybe a cup and maybe another cup an
hour or so later to kind of gently kind of

(52:59):
have their impact.

S8 (53:00):
Absolutely. I sort of suggest about an hour before sleep,
because this gives us time to sort of calm the
body and the mind and prepare for sleep, because often
these herbs, they work by interacting with the nervous system
and influencing neurotransmitters. And some of these herbs compounds do
have this sedative effect. So they need a little bit
of time to have their benefit. But I suggest about

(53:22):
an hour before sleep and including it as part of
a greater kind of ritual All that's about preparing for bedtime. So,
you know, I guess a warm, soothing cup of tea
is a really great way to signal to the body
and the mind that, you know, we are preparing now
for sleep, and you might have some other rituals like
meditation or reading or, you know, putting the phone away

(53:44):
that can sort of just set the tone for a
nice sleep. So yeah, I'd say about an hour before bed.

S2 (53:52):
I know a lot of the people that do talk
about how to get a better night's sleep, having that
ritual or that routine can be very, very important as well.
And I know we spoke to you about this or
you spoke to us about this in our very early days,
drinking tea mindfully was such an important thing as well.
Kind of appreciating it, like taking it all in. And
I guess if you're doing that, then it kind of

(54:13):
automatically is relaxing the mind and putting you into that
sort of meditative, more relaxed state as well. Rather than,
I've got to do this, I've got to get the
washing on or I've got to, you know, go to
this appointment tomorrow morning if you kind of get into
that more meditative or relaxed state as you're having your tea.
That can kind of have a double effect, if you like.

S8 (54:31):
Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah. Tea is such a great opportunity
to just stop for a minute and have that little
mindful moment and, you know, at the end of the day,
as part of a pre-bedtime ritual, I guess it would
be a nice opportunity to sort of have a little
bit of gratitude for what's been great about the day

(54:51):
and maybe, you know, also let go of anything that
might be might have been challenging and really sort of
just take a moment.

S2 (54:58):
Yeah, it's a great point you make about, you know,
the end of the day rather than think about all
the things that have gone wrong. Maybe thinking about some
of the things that you can be grateful for, that, um,
kind of can put you in a better frame of mind.

S8 (55:09):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that is really effective at such
a simple thing. But I know that when I do
focus on feeling grateful for all the things that I
do have and that are going well, it does really
influence my overall mental health.

S2 (55:24):
And he talked about, you know, giving it an hour
or so for it to kind of take a impact.
I guess the other thing is it might not sort
of happen tonight, but it's the sort of thing that
over a period of time, if you have these things
on a regular basis, that that regular time, there's kind
of a cumulative effect to their impact as well.

S8 (55:41):
Yeah, I would say so probably more about that actual
ritual rather than, you know, the herbs sort of building
up in your body or anything like that. But yeah,
I guess just getting into that, that ritual signals that
you're ready for sleep. There are other beautiful things too.
I've just been addicted to turmeric lately, and I've created
like a little kind of turmeric latte powder combination that

(56:04):
I find is also helping with sleep. So just trying
something new rather than a sort of infusing a tea,
but using the ingredients as more of a sort of
milky drink is another way to do things, and that
has been really giving me great sleep. So there's always
new things to try to.

S2 (56:20):
Well, you always found bright and bubbly, so you must
be a good night's sleep. And of course, you know,
milk is something that, uh, does, uh, is it tryptophan
that it contains that can help us sleep? So, um,
if you can combine that with something that you're putting
the milk into that can also have that, uh, relaxing, uh,
impact that that's a good thing as well.

S8 (56:38):
Yeah. The possibilities are endless.

S2 (56:40):
Terrific. All right. Well, hopefully people get a good night's sleep.
Some people might think that listen to this program might
help put them to sleep. Not when you're on, Belinda.
Perhaps just when I'm speaking. That's a topic for another day. Belinda. Now,
if people want to come and, uh, talk to you
or find out a bit more information about not just, uh,
teeth that can help with sleep, but other sort of things,

(57:01):
or just teas that taste nice, which is very important
as well. How can we, uh, get in touch with you?

S8 (57:06):
Um, you can get in touch with me over the phone.
0419 839 702 or via my website at Belinda. Or via email.
And also, yeah, come visit me at my studio on
Old Port Road in Queenstown.

S2 (57:25):
Good to catch up. We'll speak again next month. But, uh,
let's hope that people, if they're having a bit of
trouble sleeping, maybe a bit of a chat like this,
and some ideas can help them drift off and have
a better night's sleep, because there's nothing worse than waking
up feeling tired. So if you can get a good
night's sleep, it puts you in a good frame of
mind for the rest of the day once you wake up. Well.

S8 (57:44):
Absolutely. It's very important.

S2 (57:47):
Terrific. Thanks, Linda.

S8 (57:49):
Thanks, Peter. Bye.

S2 (57:50):
And headed there from Linda the brew. That is true. 97,
a old port road at Queenstown. Want to contact Belinda? 0419 839 702.

S9 (58:04):
You're in elite company listening to Leslie here on business radio.
Radio VA radio, digital VA radio. Org and through the
TuneIn radio app.

S2 (58:17):
The last couple of weeks, we've chatted about RSV and
the new strain of Covid and also the flu with
some experts, which has been great. Let's chat about it
with someone who's got lived experience of some of these conditions.
Madeline Ruskin, lovely to catch up. Thanks for your time.

S8 (58:33):
Thank you so much, Peter. It's always a pleasure to
appear on your show. So thank you so much.

S2 (58:38):
You're way too kind. Now, do you want to sort
of start at the beginning with your, uh, I guess,
lived experience of some of these conditions and I guess
the impact they can have on your quality of life
as much as anything.

S8 (58:48):
So, um, I was diagnosed with long Covid in 2022.
I only had one Covid infection, but it had a
pretty severe impact on me. I was already chronically ill
before I got Covid. I had a I've had a few, um,
chronic health conditions, but the Covid infection really pushed all

(59:09):
of my symptoms over to the more severe side. So
not only was I experiencing new symptoms from my long
Covid diagnosis and like new symptoms, I've got new allergies
that I never had before. But also, my pre-existing conditions
were all made a lot worse by my Covid infection.

(59:30):
So I'm keen to just kind of talk about Covid
and what it's like for people to actually experience it,
because I feel like we hear about it in the news.
We hear about, um, amazing scientists and professors talking about it,
but we don't always get the actual, like, idea of
how much it can impact someone. So that's why I

(59:50):
was so excited to be invited on here today. Thank
you Peter.

S2 (59:53):
Well, often we hear about people saying, oh, you know,
I had it for a few days. I didn't even
know I had it. And, you know, I was over
it before, you know it. But, I mean, that's not
the story for everyone.

S8 (01:00:02):
No, no. And, um, one of the scary things about
Covid is that your infection can be asymptomatic, so you
can have no idea that you have Covid. Um, and
you might not even feel that you're sick. And it's
about 40% of people experience these asymptomatic infections. But the
scariest part is that it actually doesn't mean that your

(01:00:25):
body isn't impacted by Covid. It means your body's like
really impacted by Covid because your immune system isn't even
having a response. So that's why it's so important to
be putting on a mask when you go out into public,
crowded indoor spaces, and to just make sure if you're
feeling unwell, if your loved ones are feeling unwell, to

(01:00:48):
stay home and rest up because you really do need
rest to recover from these awful infections, or it can
lead to something like long Covid.

S2 (01:00:57):
Which is about long Covid. Then I mean, what are
some of the symptoms, particularly those that are, you know,
most challenging as far as living day to day goes?

S8 (01:01:05):
So, um, my long Covid symptoms, the worst ones for me.
I get really severe headaches if I overexert my energy.
I also have a very small energy limit. So it's
like my energy is like a really dodgy iPhone with
a battery that just won't charge. So my battery is
perpetually on 10% and it just won't go up no

(01:01:29):
matter how much I rest. Um, so yes, trying to
live within your energy envelope, um, every day. Um, I
also have got quite severe joint pain, um, which makes
it hard to do the things that I love get
around to my friends. I also developed, um, allergies that
I'd never had before to, uh, skincare products that I

(01:01:51):
was using. And, um, have had to really investigate all
of that, which has been tough. But yes, I think
the worst part for me is the pain and the fatigue,
because that's what takes me away from the people that
I love. I can't interact with them as much as
I would like when I'm in a lot of pain
and when I'm really tired.

S2 (01:02:11):
What about things like brain fog?

S8 (01:02:13):
Oh, yes. Brain fog. I think that was my brain fog.
Forgetting about brain fog. I have pretty severe brain fog. Um,
it can be really tricky. It means my short term
memory has disappeared. Um, and I rely on lists. Now,
I'm a big believer in lists. But, yes, brain fog
is something that can get better for people. Um, if

(01:02:36):
they have had a Covid experience, they might experience brain fog, um,
for like the next six months. And some people, they
do get better, which is fantastic. But some people they
just keep that level of brain fog, unfortunately, and it
can be quite hard to deal with.

S2 (01:02:50):
Now, of course, we learned last week about the fact
that there's this new test out that you stick the
thing up your nose and it can diagnose which virus
you might be, um, uh, guilty of having. Uh, but
I guess there's no actual test for long Covid, is
that right?

S8 (01:03:06):
That's exactly right. There is no test for long Covid.
It's basically it's a diagnosis of exclusion. So they'll test
you for lots of different things. And if it all
comes back negative, then they will be giving you the
long Covid diagnosis. Um, which the other part is that
there are no treatments, um, or no cure for long Covid.

(01:03:30):
At the moment the amazing scientists are working on it,
and there is a lot of studies out there, so
don't lose hope. But at the moment there is no
treatment or cure.

S2 (01:03:42):
You read my mind because obviously there's no, uh, there's no, um, diagnosis,
if you like. But then what about in terms of treatment?
And I guess because the symptoms are a little bit,
shall we say, um, that there's so many different types
of symptoms, it's probably hard to kind of get a
treatment for every particular symptom or any of the symptoms,
if you know what I mean.

S8 (01:04:02):
You're absolutely right, Peter. That is so true. I think
there was when I was reading about someone said that
there was over 150 different symptoms that you can have,
and it's all very individualized. Everyone has a different experience
of long Covid, so you can imagine that would be
pretty hard to figure out. What is a good treatment
for these different types of symptoms that someone might be experiencing.

(01:04:23):
And they haven't completely figured out why long Covid happens,
whether it is the virus being trapped inside your body
or if it's something else, they haven't quite gotten to
the bottom of it, which is kind of where hopefully
once they do, the treatments will come in.

S2 (01:04:39):
I was going to ask you if whether you thought
your pre-existing conditions might have had something to do with it,
but I've heard of people being, you know, fit, young, healthy,
you know, only contracting Covid once and then getting long
Covid from it. So their pre-existing conditions kind of were non-existent.

S8 (01:04:54):
Exactly. Which is exactly why it's so strange and why
I am always urging people to exercise caution because I
had a number of pre-existing conditions beforehand. I have myalgic encephalomyelitis,
chronic fatigue syndrome or Me CFS. I also have fibromyalgia.

(01:05:14):
So these are two conditions that are immune system related. Um,
so long Covid has really ramped those up for me.
But I personally know a lot of people who, you know,
they were footy players beforehand. They never had to worry
about their health, but they had one Covid infection or
two Covid infections and their life has completely changed, which

(01:05:37):
is really disconcerting to them because they have never had
to think about their health in that way. So yes,
that's why I urge people to really take precautions. And
taking precautions doesn't mean you're scared of the virus or
anything like that. It just means that you don't want
to get these symptoms that are so awful that people
are all over the country, are dealing with these long

(01:06:00):
Covid symptoms, and it's no fun having Covid anyway. So
that's why I'm always recommending pop on a mask when
you're going on public transport. It's easy. It's like putting
on a pair of sunglasses. So yes, just how you
can best look after yourself. Because if you enjoy the
life you're leading, you don't want something like this to
blow it all up.

S2 (01:06:18):
Of course, there's the sort of thing also that now
wearing a mask isn't quite as, um, I'm not sure
what the, you know, extremes that might have been six
years ago.

S8 (01:06:25):
Exactly. Yes. It like, I feel like it has died
down the kind of, um, caring about other people's health
and your own health by wearing a mask around. But
it was happening before Covid. Lots of people were wearing
masks in lots of different Asian countries because they they
knew that, like, they don't want to infect other people

(01:06:47):
if they're sick or they don't want to catch someone
else's germs on public transport and things like that. So
I think it is just a very simple and easy
way of making sure that you're not getting all these
nasty viruses in winter time or whenever they're spreading.

S2 (01:07:02):
Because that way you're looking after yourself and others as well.
And I guess that sort of hand hygiene, that kind
of personal hygiene stuff that we heard a lot about
during the height of Covid, you know, that messages is
important as it was now, is is as important now
as it was then.

S8 (01:07:16):
Exactly, exactly. It's even though we don't really want to
think about those years of lockdowns and things like that,
we did learn some very important lessons about how we
can do things better, because everyone wants to be sick
for weeks. It's no fun. I know personally, and I
also know that people who are not chronically sick like me,
it is even worse for them because they're not used

(01:07:38):
to it. So you don't want that? Yeah. Do what
you can to look after yourself and the ones around you.

S2 (01:07:43):
Of course. You talked about the impact upon your life,
sort of socially, but then you've got the situation if
you work or if you've got family or all those
other quote unquote responsibilities as well, that all gets impacted too.

S8 (01:07:56):
It certainly does. It really does. And I know a
lot of parents who have been diagnosed with long Covid,
who found it really difficult because they want to spend
time with their children, with their loved ones, and they
simply don't have the energy to be able to participate
and like, spend time with their children as much as
they did before, which would be absolutely devastating, I think.

(01:08:18):
And I can personally tell you, working with long Covid
is definitely harder than working without long Covid. I've had
to change the kind of roles that I'm looking for.
I'm now able to do mostly remote work. That's what
works best with my symptoms, but it is really hard
and I will say it is extremely hard to access

(01:08:41):
government support as well. If you do have long Covid
it is extremely tricky. I'm sure people it's not easy
for any condition probably, but long Covid because there is
not a lot of information about it. There's not, you know,
treatment information, no cures, Nothing like that. So you will
be struggling a little bit if you're putting in an

(01:09:04):
application for government support. So that's why it's another reason
to do what you can to avoid it, because there
are unfortunately a lot of barriers to get help.

S2 (01:09:13):
But I'm sure that with your pre-existing conditions, you probably
had a really good GP or relationships with good GPS.
I'm thinking in terms of perhaps to get that diagnosis,
how frustrating that can be when perhaps doctors come back
and say, well, you know, you've had these tests. I
see nothing here to worry about, and then you start
doubting yourself. Or maybe indeed, they start thinking, well, maybe

(01:09:34):
this this person probably isn't as sick as they think
they are.

S8 (01:09:37):
Oh, you've exactly hit the nail on the head, Peter.
That is truly what happens. I've been lucky enough to have, um,
amazing GPS who listen to me, which I would say
is one of the most important parts of being a GP,
is listening to your patients. So I have not had
as many barriers as other people in accessing Saying help

(01:09:57):
with my GP in terms of, you know, getting blood
tests just to make sure it isn't anything else that
we need to worry about. But I know a lot
of people go to their GP, talk about their symptoms
and to dismiss. It's dismissed as anxiety or any other
like mental health struggles. And that would be extremely frustrating
for the person who is living with these awful new symptoms.

(01:10:20):
And they know that there's something wrong with their body.
But it's really hard when the tests are not showing anything.
And when a lot of GP's, unfortunately, are not well
educated on what to do if someone comes to them
with long Covid symptoms, even like knowing what long Covid is,
and then they don't really know where else to go

(01:10:41):
after that. And I will say there is an online clinic,
clinic 19, which is a long Covid clinic which has
a bit of promise. I haven't attended it myself. I'm
on the very long waiting list, but like there are
things out there that GPS can be doing. So please
don't lose hope if you are struggling. It can feel
really isolating, but you know your body and you know

(01:11:04):
that there's something wrong, so keep on pursuing.

S2 (01:11:07):
That's a really good point. I think most of us
do know. Well, you know, I'm not feeling as I
should that there's not there's something not quite right. Okay.
That blood test didn't show anything, but that still doesn't
convince me. But just quickly, we're running out of time.
What about in terms of vaccines? Because we've also last
few weeks about sort of vaccine fatigue?

S8 (01:11:26):
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I as I've said, like it's understandable
people are a bit sick of Covid and a bit
sick of thinking back to times when things were pretty stressful.
But getting a vaccine booster is one of the best
things you can do to look after yourself in this
Covid way. Because a vaccine, um, helps you to fight

(01:11:49):
off the Covid infection better if you do get it,
and it also decreases your chance of getting long Covid.
So it is a really useful tool to have in
your back pocket. So I definitely encourage people, if they're
not sure about it, to go and get a booster,
because you want to be giving yourself the best chance
of fighting off any of these nasty bugs out there.

(01:12:11):
I'd also recommend getting your flu shot too. And yeah,
just look after yourself. So my recommendations are putting on
a mask when you're out in public, in a crowded
area for yourself and for your loved ones as well,
and also getting a vaccination because, yeah, these are the
best tools that you have at the moment to be
looking after yourself. So yeah, use them to your advantage.

S2 (01:12:34):
Maddy, you look out yourself. Thank you for speaking to us.
It's been much appreciated.

S8 (01:12:38):
Thank you so much. It's always so lovely to speak
to you and yes, always have the best time. So
thank you so much.

S2 (01:12:45):
Madame Ruskin. It's a great idea about long Covid and
some of the things we can do to minimise our chances,
or indeed to get good support around you just to
make sure you can get through that tough time, perhaps
a little bit easier. A really important day coming up
on June the 17th. If you're interested in getting your
heart screened for different illnesses, tell us a bit more

(01:13:07):
about it. We've got Doctor Matthias Matthias from my colleague. Doctor,
thanks so much for your time and welcome. I know
you're in the US. I appreciate you making time for us.

S10 (01:13:15):
Oh, thank you so much for having me on your show.
It's a absolute honor and I'm glad I've been able
to log in from, uh, from overseas.

S2 (01:13:24):
Yes. Communications is a good thing when it works. Now, uh,
a very important day coming up on June the 17th.
Tell us when and where and what will be happening.

S10 (01:13:31):
Oh, we're very excited. Here in Melbourne at the Austin Hospital,
we're hosting a, um, heart valve screening day. And look,
I do a lot of work with our elderly patients
whose valves, you know, get old as they get old. And, um,
the beautiful thing is, is that, um, just because they're
getting a little bit more breathless or they can't do

(01:13:51):
what they're doing. It may well be that there's something
underlying that's causing this slow deterioration, and something that's potentially
minimally invasive, that can actually treat them and get them
back to doing the normal things that they've been doing
for many, many decades before. So it's, um, it's a
great opportunity, I think, for to have a hard tech, um,

(01:14:14):
in the coming, um, you know, in, in next week,
which is wonderful.

S2 (01:14:18):
What's involved with the test? Is it invasive? Is it painful?
I'm a big no. No.

S10 (01:14:24):
Yeah. No. A great question. The, um, you know, it's
something that we learned in medical school and, and I
guess during the Covid era and, and with the technology
getting so advanced, we've kind of gone back to the roots. And,
and one of our mottos is that murmurs matter. So,
you know, we're going to have some stations where we've
got some valve specialists and all their clinical coordinators. They'll

(01:14:47):
be listening to patients hearts and seeing if there's any
murmurs or little noises that you can hear, which is
suggestive of a valve dysfunction. And then we've got some
point of care. Echocardiograms. So just a little probe with
an ultrasound wave that's very minimally invasive. They'll be able
to look inside the heart and check out how those
valves are actually working. And if there's anything significant there.

(01:15:11):
Then we'll be able to, um, you know, consequently follow
up with something a little bit more thorough.

S2 (01:15:16):
So someone could have something not quite right and not
know about it.

S10 (01:15:20):
Yeah. Look. And then this is the thing that, um,
you know, really brought us to do something like this
is that we kept hearing all these patients that have
deteriorated slowly over a long period of time, and that's
been put down to aging. And, you know, once they
were formally assessed, you know, we found out that they've
got significant valve disease in in their heart. And once

(01:15:44):
we're able to repair that, they go on and you know,
and get back their life and their quality of life
in particular, that they've been missing out and just putting
down to old age.

S2 (01:15:53):
We'll come to the reparation in a second. But this
is kind of so different than having high cholesterol or
having high blood pressure. This is kind of another issue.
It has something else for us to worry about.

S10 (01:16:04):
Yeah, 100%. You know, I think we're all getting very
good at, uh, at picking up, you know, blood pressure
and cholesterol problems and, you know, everything's. Shane Warne died unexpectedly.
You know, we're getting a lot of people getting screened
at probably a little bit earlier, which is good for the,
you know, for normal risk factors for heart attacks. Something
that's under-recognized, I think in general is that, you know,

(01:16:27):
there are other parts of the heart that can cause
other symptoms. You know, they don't cause you to have
a heart attack, but they cause you to feel very
breathless and very fatigued, and you are unable to walk
very far. And, um, you know, and that could well
be a sign of the valves not working properly. And, um, unfortunately,
when it gets very severe, it's not a very pleasant

(01:16:47):
for the patient. And, uh, and, you know, your long
term outcomes aren't great unless it gets fixed. So, uh,
picking something like this up early, you know, has revolutionized,
you know, many patients that we've met. And now we
want to make it widely available to all those patients
that are at slightly higher risk of developing heart valve deterioration.

S2 (01:17:08):
Alright. We'll let people grab something to either record or
write down the information, and we'll repeat it before we go.
But June the 17th is the day to put in
your diary because he talked about the, um, the reparation. So, uh,
one thinks open heart surgery, you know, big operations. That's
not the case so much these days.

S10 (01:17:27):
Correct, correct. You know, look, things have changed a lot
in cardiology, and probably most people are now aware of
coronary stents that can be put in if you've got
blockages in your arteries. And, you know, I guess when
I was deciding what kind of doctor I wanted to be,
it was this valve replacements were kind of slowly starting
out to become a little bit more common. And as

(01:17:48):
you've mentioned, they're an alternative to having open heart surgery.
And there are inserted, you know, from the femoral artery
or in your groin. We put a little tube that's
a couple of millimeters wide. And then through that little
tube we're able to deploy and give people a brand
new valve. And luckily these valves have been tested significantly

(01:18:12):
over the last decade. And now they've really become commonplace
in the world of cardiology and in people that have
heart valve dysfunctions, particularly those over the age of 65.

S2 (01:18:24):
That method, if you like, that method of operation, if
I can call it that. I guess that sort of
means you recover quicker, less chance of infection, probably less
time in hospital, which is probably a good thing for everyone.

S10 (01:18:36):
Yeah. Look, it is a beautiful part of cardiology. And, um,
and it's revolutionized the way we treat patients, because now
this is done in a, um, in a cath lab
where you're not intubated, so you don't need general anaesthetics.
You know, you're awake. You know, some patients even tell
us some jokes while we're while we're trying to fix
up their valves. They get out of bed, you know,

(01:18:57):
later that day, within 4 to 6 hours. And, you know,
normally go home within 24 or 48 hours. So it's
completely changed the paradigm. When you go to ICU, you'd
have a big scar on your chest. And then if
you do really well, you're still home only within a week.
And it still takes three months to recover from those
big operations. Whereas here, you know, patients are back walking and, uh,

(01:19:19):
and playing tennis or golf within a week or two.

S2 (01:19:22):
I don't want to be a bit of a downer. Uh,
but how long do the valves last? And when you
do this wonderful operation, it works. How long can they
kind of keep ticking over for?

S10 (01:19:32):
Peter, have you been doing, uh, your scientific research?

S2 (01:19:35):
I haven't actually had personal experience, but maybe a family
member might have.

S10 (01:19:39):
There you go. No, no, that's a great question. Yeah.
So when in medicine, whenever we have new technology, it
starts getting used in people that have absolutely no options.
You know, and this is how this technology started when
they couldn't go open heart surgery. And then, you know,
we started finding out that the valve was working. And
then it was tested against patients who could have surgery

(01:20:03):
or could have something minimally invasive. You know, and now
what we're seeing is that when we follow these patients
up and compare it to surgery, there's no downside to
the minimally invasive valves. And now we've got data after
ten years where there's been no significant deterioration in the valve,
which is which is wonderful. You know, all valves will fail,

(01:20:23):
you know. So someone lives long enough, you know, like,
just like we've seen on the surgical valves, you know,
they have a life span and they then they're not
as good as the original ones we have. Peter. We
haven't been able to manufacture anything as smart as that. But,
you know, so far it's been doing really well for
a decade. And now we've got potential options of treating

(01:20:44):
valves that are minimally invasive, put in if they fail.
You know, we did one the other day where we
put a second valve in there, minimally invasive. And it's
worked very well.

S2 (01:20:54):
That's amazing isn't it? That's wonderful news. What about risk
factors or anything people can do preventative wise? I mean,
obviously turning up on the 17th and getting screened is
a good start. But is lifestyle is is anything what
we eat or drink or exercise? Do those things play
a role with heart valve issues rather than sort of

(01:21:15):
conventional heart issues?

S10 (01:21:16):
Correct. Yeah. Look, you've mentioned, obviously the traditional risk factors
of having a heart attack, which we've discussed earlier, are
both lost. All measures that are very, very important. Unfortunately,
with heart valve disease, this is predominantly due to age,
you know, and unless we can get younger. You know

(01:21:37):
this valve.

S2 (01:21:39):
You haven't worked out.

S10 (01:21:40):
A.

S2 (01:21:40):
Way to do that yet.

S10 (01:21:42):
Oh, look. But we're trying. We're trying. That's the next interview.
Maybe with something else that we can. We can have
a longevity clinic.

S2 (01:21:50):
I guess that's that's kind of modern medicine, isn't it?
I mean, if it's encountering a problem or if a
health is not as good as it could be, we
have got ways of kind of improving that situation.

S10 (01:22:00):
Correct, correct. Look at the, um, you know, even though
we can't prevent it, I guess the key is, you know,
finding out whether there's any abnormality or early stages of change. And, um,
and then you can have someone follow that up over
years and, and I've got patients that, you know, have
had valve to deterioration, but it's not severe enough to

(01:22:20):
cause any symptoms or warrant any therapy. But if the
time comes, you know, and, you know, like we said,
they're all going to get worse with age. But if
the time comes when they become symptomatic and they're otherwise
very well and they have a lot to live for,
that's when we decide, you know, to intervene. Unfortunately, if
you let it go too long, then any of the
risks of intervention, you know, even minimally invasive stuff becomes very,

(01:22:43):
very risky. And, um, you know, in some cases, you know,
we've unfortunately missed that window where the patient would benefit.
And that's what we're trying to avoid.

S2 (01:22:53):
What about in terms of, uh, men or women, any
of the sexes that are more at risk? Does it
discriminate in that area?

S10 (01:23:01):
Look, you know what? We discriminate against women in all
types of medicine, as in that we diagnose women later
and we don't treat them as aggressively. But the greatest
thing is that in this kind of, uh, valve deterioration,
because women live longer, they're actually been, you know, getting
treated with this new technology pretty much at a 5050 ratio,

(01:23:23):
which is wonderful news. And, you know, even when we
look at some analysis of some of these big data
that we now have women do proportionately disproportionately better than
men with a minimally invasive technology when we compare them
to surgery. So, and because they live longer, you know,
we expect this technology to really, um, even augment that

(01:23:46):
mortality difference that we see between men and women as
long as they get picked up early. So, uh, look,
it is a great leveller and it is, you know,
we've had a few clinical trials, even some that we've
been involved in recently where, you know, 80% of the
candidates were actually women. And that's unheard of in the
world of medicine, in the world of clinical trials in medicine.

(01:24:07):
So actually, women are very well represented, uh, with this
technology and with valvular heart disease.

S2 (01:24:13):
I wonder if it's also perhaps that I'm being a
bit presumptuous here, that maybe they look after themselves better
after the surgery, maybe they do the right thing and
sort of recover quicker and then stay well, longer, maybe.

S10 (01:24:24):
Yeah. Look there. Um, in general, you know, women tend
to be more robust, uh, in their the recovery and
the way they overcome some of these, um, procedures. Very
provocative there, Peter. I don't know what to say to that, but, um, look,
the anatomy of the of, of women also tends to
play a big role. And women tend to have smaller

(01:24:47):
aortic valves, for example, smaller complexes. And, um, some of
the hemodynamics of the valves that we put in is
actually performs much better than, than surgery. And I think
that that's why they benefit from this technology more than men.

S2 (01:25:02):
Because this has been a fascinating interview. Now a day
that's for screening. It's free isn't it? So, uh.

S10 (01:25:08):
It is free. It's free. So look, if you want
to just go to, uh, Melvin valves.com, then, um, you know,
there'll be a link there and you'll be able to, um,
book in your appointment, or you can just, uh, you know,
pop in and, uh, and see, is that the Austin hospital?
So there'll be lots of people around and lots of, uh,
information booths, and you'll be able to see some live

(01:25:29):
valves that we actually put in there and and how
they get there. So it should be a fun day,
an educational day, and also a great opportunity to get screened.
You know, for potential valve dysfunction.

S2 (01:25:41):
Will you be there signing autographs?

S10 (01:25:43):
Mate, I'm not sure about autographs, but I'll be, you know,
hanging out with my stethoscope and, um, and, um, playing doctor.

S2 (01:25:51):
Maybe someone can have a selfie taken with you.

S10 (01:25:54):
That'll be sensational. But, uh, you know, they told me
my face is better for radio, so they may not
want to do that.

S2 (01:26:00):
I mean, it's been good fun. I know the time differences,
and and you're literally just come out of surgery, so
it's so wonderful to speak to you. Thank you so much.
And I'd love to speak to you again.

S10 (01:26:10):
Oh, Peter, thank you so much for your time and
for having me on your show. It's an absolute honour.

S2 (01:26:14):
That's the Matthew Udy who's an interventionist, a cardiologist, uh,
which is a very interesting term in itself. And that today,
coming up on the 17th of June, we'll put those
details up in our show notes. And as always, if
you've missed them, give us a call at the radio
station and we'll let you know the information you require.

(01:26:35):
King's birthday on Monday, of course, and depending on when
you're listening, it would still have been the King's birthday
on Monday. However, if you or someone you know has
been recognized with an award, please get in touch, particularly
if they've worked in the area of disability or social
justice or advocacy or health. We always like to catch
up with winners. We can't be across every single winner.

(01:26:57):
So if you or someone you know has been nominated
or has been a recipient, please get in touch with us.
We'd love to have a chat with them on the radio.
And if it's you, we'd love to have a chat
to you. A couple of quotes before we go. Am
I have seen a quote through now. Emma may have
worked with Letter Link back in the 90s before going
on to bigger and brighter stars at Nova and also

(01:27:20):
the ABC. A wonderful career that Emma has had. Emma's
was quite is those who have milk in their coffee
don't deserve to have coffee. All right, Emma, thank you
very much for that. Stirring up a bit of trouble.
Maybe just have tea from Brewed by Belinda the brew.
That is true. And Tony has sent it quite through.
Tony has said with this cold weather rug up, toughen up,

(01:27:45):
jump up and get out and get exhilarated. So, Tony,
thank you so much for your quote as well. Some
birthdays before we go. Angie Ballard having a birthday. Captain
of the Australian Paralympic team last year in Paris. Happy
birthday to you, Angie. Clarence McCarthy. Grogan having a birthday
that champion basketballer from the Northern Territory speaking about champion

(01:28:06):
basketballers Tina McKenzie from the gliders. Horse having a birthday.
A very big happy birthday to you, Richard Morgan having
a birthday. Long time, um, program manager here at Vision
Australia Radio, also from Safm and five star in the
South East. southeast. Rock and roll. Richard having a birthday. Richard.
Hope life is going well for you. Hope you're back

(01:28:27):
in your winner. Hope you're enjoying the pretty good season.
We'll chat about that sometime, I'm sure. And I live
in the South having a birthday, doing wonderful work with Parkinson's.
Olivia a very big happy birthday to you, Sam. Richard,
thanks so much for your help, Pan-green. Thanks so much
for yours. Reminding you that Leslie is available on that
favorite podcast platform of yours. We'd love you to tell

(01:28:50):
more people about the show. Be kind to yourselves, be thoughtful,
and look out for others all. Don't forget coming up
very soon. Vicky cousins with Australian Geographic, so don't touch
that dial. Leave it on the station for kids coming
up very soon on Vision Australia Radio and the Reading
Radio Network. This is leisurely.

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