When Susie Hewson watched a TV program about chlorine bleaching in paper products in 1989, she never imagined it would launch a 35-year journey revolutionizing feminine hygiene. As founder of Natracare, Susie transformed an industry by creating certified organic, compostable period products free from toxins and plastics at a time when women entrepreneurs faced extraordinary barriers.
The environmental impact is striking—Natracare customers prevent plastic equivalent to a blue whale from entering marine environments annually just by choosing sustainable products. But Susie's fight extended beyond creating alternatives; she faced corporate lawyers attempting to silence her advocacy and banks refusing loans to women entrepreneurs. Through persistence and unwavering integrity, she built a company embodying her personal values while educating consumers about hidden dangers in conventional products.
Particularly alarming is Susie's revelation about regulatory oversight—agencies like the FDA don't conduct independent research but rely on industry-provided data to determine product safety. This explains why harmful ingredients remain on shelves for decades before being recognized as dangerous. She urges consumers to look beyond marketing claims for legitimate certifications like the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), warning specifically about "bamboo" products that undergo toxic processing despite eco-friendly marketing.
At 72, Susie embodies the benefits of conscious living with "the cardiovascular system of a 35-year-old." Her journey demonstrates how one person's determination can create lasting change, not just in an industry but in how we approach our health and environmental impact. Through Natracare's "Be Kind" project and commitment to donating 1% of turnover to environmental causes, she reminds us that meaningful impact often starts with simple, thoughtful choices.
Ready to make healthier choices for yourself and the planet? Visit www.natracare.com to learn more about certified organic, sustainable period products and join a movement that's been challenging industry standards since 1989.
Where to Find Natracare:
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/natracare/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/Natracare
Website | https://www.natracare.com/
Mota Magick
MOTA Magick is soulful, high-vibe CBD skincare made by women, for women. Use code JWTS to save 10%!
Start for FREE
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Follow Jacquelynn on Instagram HERE.
Follow Just Women Talking Shit on Instagram HERE.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we all, you know, we all think you have to make
big statements and make bigthings.
You know to you don't need toget on a, you don't need to get
on a Greenpeace ship and sail tothe Arctic to save a whale
which is fabulous to do that.
But you can, you know, you cansupport.
You can support the notion thatwe don't need so much plastic
because it's polluting the ocean.
(00:20):
You know, just for us, like allof nature care pads are
compostable and our pant linersare.
They're certified compostableand we went through a lot of
science and testing with anexternal agency to prove that.
But we know that you know, in ayear, for the amount of
products that we sold, that in awhole year of just you know, if
(00:41):
you were just buying naturecare products and using nature
care products, you preventedwhat is effectively um plastic
the size of a blue whale goingin to our marine environments.
Ladies and gentlemen, ladiesand gentlemen, you're listening
(01:03):
to.
Just Women Talking Shit withyour host, Jacqueline.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Cotton, jacqueline Cotton.
So I was reading, I was readingup on you before before we
hopped on, and I feel like I'min front of a legend.
I have to hear all the things.
Can you introduce yourself andtell us about your company?
(01:36):
I know you're a founder of abig company and you just
mentioned maybe some big thingsare happening.
I don't know, but I can't waitto hear all about it.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, so, yeah, I'm Susie Hewson, I'm the founder of
Nature Care, and that startedway back in 1989, which was a
campaign that I initiated toraise awareness and bring about
change in the use of toxicchemicals and synthetics and
(02:04):
plastics in feminine hygieneproducts.
And in order to do that, inorder to design those products,
I had to create a company,because prior to that, I'd been
all sorts of things I trained asa graphic designer and I did
postgrad in education so I couldteach.
I also was a fitness instructorfor 17 years and I had two
(02:25):
young children.
Both of them are under three.
So I just suddenly thought Ihad this big idea that I was
going to make a difference bymaking industry change their
minds about how they producethings, and when they didn't.
That was where I was going tostep in.
I was going to design my ownproducts, and so that was where
(02:46):
I was going to step in.
I was going to design my ownproducts, and so that was the.
That was the idea, and it cameto me in the uh after a tv
program that I'd watched aboutthe use of chlorine bleaching in
the industry all paper productsthat left contamination in our
environment of dioxins, which iscarcinogen and also remains in
the products.
But this is also at the sametime, around this time, that
toxic shock syndrome was hittingthe world.
(03:09):
So there were lots of thingsthat I needed to I was
campaigning to raise awarenessof, and there's that moment
where you decide well, if noone's going to do anything about
it, then I'll have to dosomething about it.
That was, that was the beginningand the formation of the
company, and actually this, thisis my, this is my my home.
(03:29):
I I work in an office, um, nottoo far away from here, where
our logistics and and all mystaff are in the UK and in the
US.
We're in Colorado and um and inOntario, but I was in this
office for 10 years on my own,believe it or not, um, and
working for nothing, effectively.
So everything that um that camefrom the, from the company, was
(03:52):
put back into the company.
So this is like my.
I only returned to this state ofbeing in this office, um,
during covid and I suddenlythought I know everyone's
working from home and it was abig stretch.
I mean.
I thought, well, actually Ifeel quite comfortable, I've
done this before, I was ahead ofthought.
I know everyone's working fromhome and it was a big stretch.
I mean I thought, well,actually I feel quite
comfortable.
I've done this before.
I was ahead of my time.
I was working from home all thetime when it wasn't the thing
to do, so it just felt, yeah,I'm just back in my, my, my
(04:15):
clear space.
So, and we are, we're not ahuge company where we're
classified as an SME.
There are only 22 of us in theuk, um, there's, uh, in north
america, there's six or seven.
Um, so we're we are.
We are relatively a powerhouseof women and a few men I love, I
(04:35):
love all this so much.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
First off, you just made me feel like a baby.
You said you started this in1989 that's when I was born.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I wasn't even born then probably 1989, and uh and
it was 19.
It was 19, I think it was, 1995or 96, when um we eventually got
uh got on to to access to to aninternet site we could dial up
and we designed our website andmost of the people that we were
(05:05):
communicating with were mostlymen in research positions in
universities and research places, because they were the only
others who could we're at theend of the Internet, I guess
with help, to spread the wordamazingly, and that was kind of
six, six years or more ofworking outside of any kind.
(05:29):
I mean it was libraries andtelephones.
There were no faxes, we didn'thave a printer, they weren't
home use printers, so the worldwas different.
But you know those problemsstill need to be resolved.
So I guess it's a lesson thatyou don't need big tech around
you to solve a problem, you needresolution to do it and you
know the sort of energy andwherewithal to find where your
(05:51):
assets are, where your resourcesare, and just keep throwing
yourself at it until you bringabout change.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
A hundred percent.
I mean, I know I'm like I feellike I'm still very new on the
entrepreneur journey, but I feellike you were an entrepreneur
way before.
It was cool.
Like everybody wants to be anentrepreneur now, right.
Like they have no idea theactual blood, sweat and tears
that go into it and it's themost expensive hobby ever.
(06:19):
Like you were saying, youdidn't pay yourself.
It's not a good lifestylechoice, usually, is it?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
If you are on a wellness, saying you didn't pay
yourself.
It's not a good lifestylechoice usually is it?
If you were on a wellness scale, you'd say, well, is that a
good wellness?
Is that a lifestyle choice?
I would choose.
Yeah, it is.
You know.
Someone says that you can'tchoose to be an entrepreneur.
Someone tells you you're anentrepreneur.
Those who think you know, thosewho are doing it, are just
(06:48):
plowing ahead on our route towhere we aim to be and hopefully
avoiding all the sort ofpitfalls and trip hazards that
go along the way on that journeyand learning from it.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And hopefully taking that knowledge on.
You said hopefully, that's theword y'all.
Hopefully, because I can't eventell you.
You know, like you will come incontact with the most wild
situations and it'll test youand like there's morals, there's
integrity, like it is an entirespiritual experience, in a way
(07:15):
and that you said it is ajourney that you can be.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
You know, that's where we're.
Our integrity and our moralsand our objectives and
obligations to nature and towomen's health is that.
That was our steering path.
We've never changed from thatan ethical, transparent,
(07:42):
functional, realistic option towhat was, you know, working on
those those road, road systems,asiders.
So, yeah, you have to makethose decisions along the way
and especially when you, likeyou say, when you're a new
company and finance is, um, itis a problem, can be a problem.
(08:03):
I mean I, I being a woman inbusiness, again, you're lucky in
that, you know, women havemoved forward.
Thankfully, we've all movedforward together in that when I
started, the banks didn't wantto listen to me.
You know they didn't want.
I wrote business plans and theydidn't want, they weren't happy
to want to offer me, you know,a loan or any kind.
There's no investors, it was anoverdraft.
I was going to want to offer me, you know, a loan or any kind.
(08:25):
There's no investors, it was anoverdraft.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I was going to say wasn't, and I just learned about
this, probably maybe six monthsto a year ago, but I don't know
.
It was like not too long agothat women could even get credit
cards on their own right.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You had to have your husband be on everything.
If you didn't have a husband,where are you going?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, like some of us don't.
What does some?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
of us out here don't need a husband.
No, it is, and that is how Imean.
God forbid that we ever go backto this kind of scenario where
women are treated assecond-class citizens or
incompetence or you know not.
You know too too hysterical tomake sensible choices.
I I mean women in business, inscience, in the arts.
We've kind of trodden this pathto make society see that and
(09:12):
come to understand.
What we already know aboutourselves is that we are
competent, brave women that canachieve whatever we want to.
Women have gone into space, youknow.
We've had women who've done,you know, legal challenges that
have been phenomenal.
We've had women who've done themost incredible surgery, who
(09:34):
invented all sorts of solutionsto ill health.
We have the way and the power.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Sometimes the means are not given to us yeah well,
they're taken away from us itwas, it was for sure, a man's
world.
We know that.
But like you sitting here andyou telling me that you started
this, like this idea came to youand began in 1989, shows that
like the strides the strides youhave seen, so much advancement
(10:04):
it's got a.
It kind of blows my mind.
I always wonder.
I want to touch base a littlebit more on the company and
feminine products and stuff likethat, because I have an
11-year-old girl, turning 12.
And I just literally learnedlast night through a client's
account who's a cycle syncer shehelps with womb health that
(10:24):
there are different kinds ofpads and that you should
probably have all of them.
And I'm just like there areobviously all these things I
don't know.
And then health wise, I havesome questions.
But I'm curious because you havegotten to see the different
phases of, like entrepreneurshipyou were talking about how,
(10:46):
fact, like fax machines, Iremember fax machines, I
remember having to copyeverything and like I remember
the dial-up and I rememberfloppy disks.
Okay, so I remember some of it.
But like, how are you, what isyour perspective on all this?
I think all the time, like whenI look at my children, I really
devices are so common and Idon't want it to be common.
(11:09):
So I'm curious if, like myperspective is like that, like
let's get back a little bit moreto nature and get grounded and
like away from technology,what's your perspective?
Because I know you've seen itboth ways yeah, I've got two
boys.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Um, my boys were growing up now but, um enough, I
wouldn't let them have phones.
I mean, they weren'tsmartphones back then, but it
was.
You know, it was phones and Ididn't want them to have a phone
.
And actually they acquired aphone before I even knew they
had a phone.
They were probably around maybe13.
But you know, they could havesome access to the Internet.
(11:45):
We were controlling it.
But now I mean I'm not againsttech.
I mean my husband's a computerscientist and a mathematician,
my oldest son's a biochemist andmy youngest one's a musician
and a squash player.
So I think that it's a balancein technology is a resource.
(12:10):
You know, humans have been onthis planet for a long time and
we've evolved with the use ofsome kind of technology.
And I know, for way, way, wayback it might have just been a
stick, it could have been astone.
So technology is a tool.
It's not, it should never beseen as a replacement for our
own ingenuity, our own adeptnessat using, you know, our fingers
(12:37):
and our eyes and our voices andour minds.
So I don't see technology as anevil, I see it as a tool.
But it's recognizing the limitsof that tool in as much as the
limits that you need to use itwithout replacing your own skill
base and your own growth.
(12:59):
So it becomes more and moredifficult.
Obviously because you knowsocial media is a huge thing and
you know one side is an amazingthing.
That's connected up communitiesacross the world talking to
each other, passing on ideas.
You know even our surgeons whocan do surgery over the Internet
with robotics.
So I mean you're reaching partswhere there never would be a
(13:20):
doctor, so there's so much thatwe have to be thankful for.
There never would be a doctor,so there's so much that we have
to be thankful for.
But it's recognizing for me,for me personally it was with my
children is that when itbecomes a useful tool to make
things uh, make to allow you toprogress your own skills and
abilities and knowledge, um, useit as a tool, don't use it as a
(13:42):
, as a sort of walking sticklike a crutch, yeah, like the
second nature.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, okay, I like that perspective.
I'm very grateful for it.
I mean, look, I was trying notto interrupt, but I'm like, I
mean, that's how we got here,like through social media
through the, this amazingconnection of the worldwide
internet.
I didn't ask I feel like youalready said it but where are
you based right now?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I'm here in.
Bristol in the southwest ofEngland, it's South California.
We're on the Atlantic justvirtually on the Atlantic, the
North Atlantic.
So, yeah, we're in thesouthwest of England and we're
sort of it's a fantastic place.
I wasn't born here.
I was born in the Midlands, inNottingham, in the southwest of
england, and, um, we're sort ofit's a fantastic place.
I wasn't born here, I was bornin in the midlands, in in
nottingham.
You know, the home of robinhood um, yeah, that's cool to be
(14:33):
able to say that, yeah, I'm thehome of robin hood um, and made
marion, of course, um.
So you know, the southwest isthis region where I am is is
much.
You know.
It's the arts we have.
You know the BBC natureprograms are all based here.
Itv, there's film studios, it'sthe creative arts, it's two
universities.
(14:53):
It's a place where you can comeand develop and be and no one
goes.
Oh my God, what's that?
It's a place of personalexpression and maybe outspoken
views.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Okay, well, what's the cost of living?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
It is a bit expensive down here because everyone
wants to be here.
I think Bristol was this yearclassified as the best place in
Britain to live.
Um, and so a lot of people mostpeople go to the universities.
After they finish.
A lot of them I think it'ssomething like 80% stay in the
area.
Oh, there's a lot of those arejobs and, you know, in the arts
(15:37):
and sciences and AI and tech.
You know it's, it's a good mixand we have a huge, um, uh,
diverse population as well.
So you know, we have that thatbenefit of all cultures mixing
together and and learning fromeach other.
So it's a cool place to be.
I like it oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Well, I don't know anywhere else it sounds.
It sounds amazing.
If you I mean you speak highlyof it and you've been there a
while.
It sounds like so okay, becauseon my bucket list I got to get
pardon my French, the fuck outof Mississippi.
I'm in the United States and solike I get to travel, like I'll
be in Chicago, illinois, nextweek and I've gotten to do like
(16:18):
some little mountain trips andthe plan is to buy a camper.
I pulled my little my daughter,out of homeschool I mean out of
school and homeschooling herand just really trying to like
preserve her innocence.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I think you know, and I think, rather than the view
of preserving innocence, I thinkit's more.
It's more a case ofstrengthening up the, the, the
resilience, because you know ifyou, if you're not resilient,
it's easy to be lose yourinnocence.
I think, and what you're doingis fantastic because you know if
you, if you're not resilient,it's easy to be lose your
innocence, I think, and whatyou're doing is fantastic
because you're giving it that oh, I love that, every I love that
(16:52):
when I tell somebody this andthe people around here might not
get it, but it's just reallygood to like get that
confirmation.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
But what I was saying was oh god, what was I saying?
Oh, gotta get out ofMississippi, right?
So I'm making an effort to dothat and take her and like I
want to take my son here andthere, but he's littler so it'll
just be a lot harder.
And he's got his dad here and wehave three other boys, so we're
a big blended family.
A little backstory, so any ofthis that's a great team, so it
(17:28):
makes sense.
Thank you, um, but I want toget out of the country and so
all of over there like I want tosee it all, but every time I
get on like a chat with somebodyso bristol I've not had anybody
say, oh, like bristol isamazing.
I haven't heard about bristolyet.
So my question is long storyshort, where do I go?
When I go to bristol, likewhat's, what do I have to say?
What?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
is the time of year you come.
I mean, you can say Bristol isat the top or the, the hub of
the southwest of England.
So, um, if you come in, uh,june, is it June?
End of June you can go toGlastonbury.
You go to the music festival.
Um, there is, uh, the harbourfestival.
Around bristol, in north of usis bath.
So if you like a bit of regencystuff, there's, uh, you know,
(18:10):
the jane austen vibe and romanbaths and the minerva fountains,
um, a rat, but in bristol it'sthis culture, it's arts and
music and food, um, and, andwe're quite a small city and you
know we're in a, you know we'refocused on 260 degrees
countryside around us.
So, and then the coast.
(18:30):
So you know you can go surfing.
Actually there's a surf lakejust down the road from me.
It's called the Wave.
I can walk and I can surfAbsolutely and great coffee
afterwards.
So there's a surfing lake andgreat coffee afterwards as.
So there's a surfing lake.
Um, we've got, you know, thereis whatever you want, um, that
will give you a sort of you know, a broad cultured exposure to
(18:53):
things that bristol and thesouthwest has it in shed loads.
I mean, you go into devon,south devon.
You got the coastal footpathsum beaches down into cornwall.
You got on the north.
You got the rugged cliffs andthe smashing atlantic waves and
surf.
You got on the north.
You got the rugged cliffs andthe smashing Atlantic waves and
surf.
You go into the south coast alittle bit more gentle, sandy
beaches, nice and warm sort of.
You bring your VW, camper, vanand park up and go.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
You were like just spewing off all my life dreams.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Right now we're welcome we welcome everyone in
Bristol.
We're a welcoming community.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Susie, I think I want to be like you when I grow up.
Yeah, you're welcome, thank you.
I take that as applause.
You're just so awesome, you,you are.
You're very like, chill, verychill, relaxed and just I don't
know.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I think you know I like you a lot you go in when
you are in a business.
I mean, I've had a lot ofchallenges in this role.
You know the things that I wastalking about and continue to
talk about around, the issues ofthe products, kind of you know
what's in period products, evenjust you know some that are
claiming to be natural.
I've got issues with them.
(20:01):
Or talking about toxic shocksyndrome.
I've got issues with them.
Or talking about toxic shocksyndrome.
I mean, I've had, you know,I've had run the gambit of
lawyers who, from the corporates, who want to close me, close my
voice down, and I'm I pridemyself on, you know I've never
said anything that I could neverdo in court.
You know, truth andtransparency is what we're about
(20:29):
.
So I've taken, I feel like youknow, in this agenda to bring
this to all people who bleed isthat I've had to take on not
just the challenge of setting upa company, creating a product,
production, distribution,getting you know people to stock
the product, getting consumersto trust and buy the product.
I've also had to sort of, youknow, remind people that there
are products out there that alsotell you they are the greatest
thing for you, but actuallythey're not telling you the full
(20:50):
truth.
It's a simple it seems like asimple idea to do something, but
you have to be prepared to takeon your challenges and your
stone throwers, many of whichcame from the corporates who,
you know, did not like that.
I was shaking the, you know,the menstrual periods category
(21:14):
and speaking the truth.
So I feel like I, you know, Iwear my battle scars on my body
for all women out there so thatthey could.
You know, this category neverexisted until nature care came
into the, into this area formany, many, many years, you know
, at least a decade and a half,maybe two decades.
So I was fighting a battle onmy own, um, but it, but it was,
(21:38):
you know, it was, it was.
It's a bit of a verdict.
I suppose I'm doing it for us,um, and that that is what keeps
me going and that's why I'mstill doing it now.
Um, you know, there's a lot ofmoney in the industry.
There's brands being bought uphere, there and everywhere, you
know, and um, uh, you knowthere's a lot of products.
I made many products.
(21:59):
I mean we, we manufacture allour products in europe and our
raw materials are sourced fromEurope.
We're certified compostable,we're certified organic, our
tampons have got certifiedorganic, our wipes are certified
organic.
We're doing the right thing fornature and for transparency.
But there is, you know, there'sother stuff out there, that is,
(22:23):
you know.
I think this is a cool marketto be in.
Let's do a bit um and that'syou know.
That's.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
The ongoing challenge is making sure that we keep the
category clean and pure yes, soone I want to commend you
because as as a so I I'm abusiness coach and a client
attraction coach, so like my jamis marketing um and and helping
women who want to leadmovements.
You know very similar to whatyou're doing.
(22:46):
And so I just got to stop for asecond for all the listeners,
because think about how manywomen are out there who have a
vision and, like you were saying, well, nobody's doing it.
So I guess I got to do it.
Don't ever do it or like tooscared to do it, because it's so
easy to not begin if you can'tsee it in, like your physical 3d
yet.
(23:07):
And what I've really grown tolove and I think, believe fully
and just I'm super committed to,is the belief that it's not
about you'll like you know thatsaying, well, I'll believe it
when I see it.
Like you took this idea andthis passion from your heart,
(23:28):
like you knew what was right,you knew what needed to be done.
And it's not like 89.
I was born in 89.
That's what I was trying to sayearlier.
Susie, you've been doing thisfor a minute.
Like that is such a beautifulcommitment into.
Like the integrity is there.
You're still doing the rightthing.
I'm just oh, thank you, thankyou, thank you, thank you.
Oh gosh, you're amazing.
(23:51):
And then the second thing,because I just know so many
women are out there like on thefence or just they don't, they
don't go after the wholeenchilada because it's just them
.
I'm sitting in my closet rightnow, okay, but like, thank you,
but the vision, like my vision,is so big I know that this
podcast, so I like I won't stopuntil it's big, until it makes a
(24:14):
big impact, like I know it'smaking an impact.
And it's okay that it's just mein my closet at first it was me
on my bed.
So we move, we're leveling up,okay you know you see my picture
behind.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Can you see the picture on the wall?
I can.
Who is it?
My mother and my father.
And that was taken in about inthe 1950s, probably mid to 1950s
, and my my mother started as aseamstress.
My father built, you know yousee, these pictures of guys on
top of steel, like the EmpireState Building.
(24:46):
My dad did that.
That's terrifying, that'sterrifying.
So you know I came from, youknow, quite a poor working class
family in the Midlands.
And you know, over the time mymom trained to become a nurse,
my dad, if he didn't have a job,busked on that accordion.
He would go in the streets andbusk to make make sure there's
(25:07):
food on the table.
We only ever cook, you know,raw.
My mother cooked from raw vegand meat or what I mean.
I'm vegetarian but my brothergot fat on me but, um, yeah,
just to give him the meat ratherthan suffer the.
The swings and arrows of mymother's eye are being cooked.
But the education because of,you know, my access to education
(25:28):
, I was able to move, you know,I guess, move myself out and up,
never away, because these aremy roots.
I'm never ashamed of my roots.
These are my roots.
This is what you know, this isthe soil that I came out of and
I remember those roots.
So when you have anunderstanding of why you're
doing something, where you'vecome from and how far you've
(25:48):
come in each step that you do it, it reinforces that, that sense
of I can't even think of a wordfor it there's so many words in
the English language andthere's thousands in other
languages I've never been ableto come to but it's that sense
of, of, of ha, I feel right.
And that's that's where, whenyou have an idea and you, you
(26:09):
get yourself, you know, preparedfor it.
You plan, you, you do yourresearch and make sure you've
got the right finances.
You're not going to put yourfamily at risk with taking risks
that you can't.
You can't, you know, pay forthat you.
It is that next step and and Inever have it said that because
you come from somewhere that'snot expected to be a place that
you should be doing this things.
(26:30):
You know that that impostersyndrome thing that many of us
suffer from, and especiallyamongst women, is that never
take that as a sort of you know,a stop sign.
Just you're, you're achievingso much each day when you stride
through that.
When you say no, no, goodbye tothat, don't tell me I can't do
something.
This stuff needs to be done andI have this idea and I'm going
to go with it.
And I think women are wellprepared for that.
(26:54):
They have rational brains, youknow.
They can do their own internalrisk assessments with that, you
know right.
But I always say write it down.
But we have that as women and uhand and really that that, that
sort of that missing thing issometimes that we expect people
to say to us well, you're doingright, you're doing okay, but
really we know when we're doingright and when we're doing okay.
(27:17):
So it's it's.
We accept that we have thispower.
Um, and it's only ourselvesthat stop us from achieving what
we want to achieve.
I mean, I'd say I come from avery poor working class
background and I was able tosocially climb because of
opportunity through education,opportunity through the jobs I
(27:38):
did in the past, my business.
But I also never forget that youknow we we are part of one
percent for the planet.
So one percent of our turnovergoes back into environmental and
social projects.
So we also know there's no goodmaking, there's no for me
personally I'm not sayingeveryone should do this, but
there's no good making money ifit's not doing some good.
(28:00):
And for me, I feel that what,as a business, what we're doing
is good.
We're doing good by producing abetter product for women in the
environment, but also a largeproportion of the profits is
going back to other goodprojects that allow other people
to achieve good and change.
So it's, you know, it's a partwhere women are part of a of a
(28:22):
an ingenious economy, because wehave this personality also
within us to care and nurture.
So by being successful, we'realso helping others to be
successful.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I love that so much.
I love that so much.
What I'm taking away from thatis, regardless of where you come
from, if you get curious andyou just I think that's the big
thing is like leading withcuriosity and everything and how
you feel and where you likequestion, why am I the way I am?
(28:56):
Oh, let's just get curiousabout it and kind of like remove
the judgment and shame.
Right, I love that you tookadvantage of the education and
it's I try to tell people thisespecially.
I mean I say I try to.
I've quit trying.
Like you can make these gentlesuggestions like oh, this is a
great book.
Or you know, I listened to thispodcast.
(29:16):
But like people are going tofind it and receive it when
they're ready for that, for thechange.
But I like I tell my kids and Itell my clients, like if you
just get curious and you just Idon't know open a book or find a
podcast or just somebody youresonate with, you'll get
curious about more and then,before you know it, like your
brain is just evolving and it'sexpanding and you start to like
(29:38):
increase your self-worth, youstart to hang out with different
people and but yeah, Iresonated with that.
I know that it's a little bitdifferent, but um, I think I
learned all sorts of things Imean.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean I've been fortunate that I was.
I was given the opportunity,you know, and I was.
You know I was blessed, I guess, with a with an inquisitive
brain, and I was able to.
You know I loved, blessed, Iguess, with an inquisitive brain
, and I was able to.
You know I loved learning, Iloved being at school.
I mean, some of the stuff theywere teaching me was I might
have some disagreements aboutsome facts in history.
That's part of the learningprocess, isn't it To learn how
(30:12):
to rationalize about informationthat you're given.
But there are also situations,you know, in nature, you know,
in scenarios with other people,where you are learning
incredible things.
Itpaid work in the volunteersector.
It'd be billions, billions.
That could be someone who'slooking as a carer, someone's
(30:50):
looking after a friend, a parent, a relative of some kind,
someone who's helping out at aschool with you know kids read,
or you know helping in garden.
That the whole volunteer sectoris is worth a fortune and all
that people are are given istheir time and their experience
and their knowledge, and itdoesn't have to be knowledge
(31:11):
learned from a book.
It can be, you know,experiences that you can share
and and and and pass on a skillthat you can share, and pass on
a skill that you know you'velearned over a long time.
It's easy to be, you know, as aneducation person.
You know someone who also has apostgrad in education.
It's easy to fall under thespell that everything that's
good comes from a book,everything.
(31:32):
There may be some great thingsthat come from books, but we
mustn't also dispel the factthat there's great things that
come from having experience in,around and around things, going
out and helping.
You know, if you're, if you're,into nature, you can join the
conservation corps or similarand going to help lay hedges or
learn how to restorativeagriculture by going out in a
(31:53):
community garden.
Um, you can learn about caringfor people by just assisting,
you know, with people who neededhelp and care.
So it's, there is personalexperiences.
That is also a great educator,um, and that that that's, you
know, often not considered as aas a wealthy thing to to own
(32:14):
yeah, I hadn't.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I mean, I guess I have thought about the.
So for me it was like you know,I loved getting around people
who were doing what I wanted todo, so like intern or like do
some free projects and stufflike that, or spending time with
older people was something Ireally enjoyed doing.
But coming so being raised inthe South like bible belt south,
(32:40):
we were we were raised.
we were raised to be very um islike as servants, I guess you
know serving the lord andwhatnot, um, but anyhow.
So I love that you point thatout, because a lot of people do
forget about, like the volunteerwork and just putting yourself
out there and then like whatcomes to those connections.
(33:02):
One it's you're doing somethinggreat, but I guess a whole new
environment and you learn somuch and I didn't even think I
don't know.
Thank you for saying all that.
I'm just going to be quiet.
That was really great.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I'll just leave it where it is it makes you feel
good too, because you know doingthings for others makes you
feel good.
It makes you feel, you know,fulfilled, that you're doing
something worthwhile.
And I guess you know 35 yearsof doing it.
You know why are you stilldoing it?
Because I still feel that I'mdoing something worthwhile,
(33:34):
because there's so manychallenges to overcome.
You know I can help people andyou know there's some you know
other companies or other womenthat are a startup in business,
not even related to it.
Or given a loan to someone youknow through the loan exchange
systems or their organizationsin, say, in Africa, where you
can have a loan organization,you can give a woman you know
$45, and she'll turn that into abusiness and then pay back and
their kids are educated.
(33:55):
There's all sorts of ways thatyou can, you can make.
You know your small, small potsof money or small amounts of
skill pay back in a big way.
Um, and that's really.
Apart from nature care being aproduct, um, it is a concept
that came from my heart.
You know it came from, you knoweverything about nature care,
(34:16):
that is, nature care is me, um,which is might sound a bit weird
or maybe a bit precocious, butit it embodies all the things
that are important and and to meand I care about and I feel um
has integrity, um, so I hopethat people, when you know if
they're buying nature care orthey're seeing nature care and
(34:37):
they know that that they aresharing in that and and and the
payback to through one percentfor the planet and there are
other organizations outside ofone percent the planet that we,
you know, give financial supportto and and aid that you, you
are, you know, I guess I'msaying is that it's the power of
the purse.
Um give is is how you decidewhere your own hearts and
(35:01):
support is going and learningabout products and services and
companies and where that moneythat you're handing over what is
supporting is quite animportant consideration, and so
it's the same when you'resetting up a business or a
service is to understand thatthat people need to feel that
(35:22):
when they give you their money,they're supporting something
that they can hold their hand upto say I'm really proud.
All think we have to make bigstatements and make big things.
You know to, you don't need toget on a, you don't need to get
(35:44):
on a Greenpeace ship and sail tothe Arctic to save a whale,
which is pretty fabulous to dothat.
But you can, you know you cansupport.
You can support the notion thatwe don't need so much plastic
because it's polluting the ocean.
You know, just for us, like allof nature, care pads are
compostable and our pant linersare.
They're certified compostableand it went.
(36:07):
We went through a lot ofscience and testing with an
external agency to prove that.
But we know that you know, in ayear, for the amount of
products that we sold, that in awhole year of just you know of,
if you were just buying naturecare products and using nature
care products, you preventedwhat is effectively plastic the
(36:27):
size of a blue whale going in toour marine environments yes,
out.
By making that choice, you'rebasically helping to keep that
environment that blue whaleneeds to live in pristine.
You can make a difference byjust thinking about the choices
that you make, and there's somany conscious choices across
all the consumer market servicesthat you can make.
(36:49):
It just takes that little bitof time to sit down and do your
little bit of research.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
It's okay.
This is wrapping up and tyingtogether beautifully, because I
want to talk about, like, firstoff, your products, being in
America.
That's where I'm going to start.
You already know, probably,that America's regulations, like
all the things you know,organic, but there's so much out
(37:22):
there.
There's so much out there thatit's hard to know.
Like you were saying earlier, Ihave to time think that I'm
buying a great product, likeit's saying organic or like
da-da-da-da, but if I reallystop and look, I don't really
know.
I feel like I'm buying themarketing.
Look, I don't really know.
I feel like I'm buying themarketing.
So, one having a young woman whoI want to make sure that her
(37:45):
hormones are okay, that she'sable to, if she wants to have
babies, be able to reproduce.
I want her to be good, I wanther to be as natural and as
feeling herself as possible,right Versus.
I was put on birth control at avery young age.
I was, I've been using tamponsand all these things and my
(38:07):
hormones are all kinds of fuckedup, like I'm 35 just now
getting hold of my hormones.
So what, like your productssound great.
Are they available in america?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
oh yeah, we've been there since 19,.
Well, we've been.
Our non-applicated tampons andall of our pads have been there
since 1991.
And our applicator tamponssince 1992.
So, as you said, regulationtampons are registered, are
regulated medical devices?
Well, actually, pads are.
They're a lower class.
You, you know, you have to beregistered.
(38:39):
Um, we also have a um, we're aquality.
Our quality system has to, hasto be such that it meets the
regulations.
So we're, you know, I can giveyou all sorts of isos, but so
we're a medical device regulatedcompany manufacturer.
So, yes, all the regulationsare met, but the regulations do
not.
You know the fda or health.
(39:00):
They never, they don't do theirown individual research.
Know that number one.
They're a regulatory body andthey rely on the industry to
inform them, to provide.
You know their own, you knowcurated research as to what's
safe and effective.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Are you saying I did not know that?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
No, they don't do their own research.
They're never using publicmoney, using your money, to do
that.
Um and so so know that you know, and there's, there is an
organization that you know isthere to, obviously the fda, and
like health counter, are thereto protect there to protect you.
They're not there to to do to dotheir own research.
(39:38):
If you might pass your mindback.
Um, there was a lot ofpublicity recently uh, back in
back into last year about heavymetals in tampons.
We do precautionary tests.
We don't use any processes orraw materials where there would
ever be heavy metals in ourproducts, but we still do
precautionary testing becauseevery year, because where we we
take the precautionary route,what if you don't look?
(39:58):
You don't look, you don't find,if you don't aim to look, how
would you ever know?
And we put our results on ourwebsite.
But it was quite clear thatthere were many I think it was
on a Barclay their research.
That's another fact for you.
Barclay Castle is not too faraway from me.
But the fact that there isheavy metals in the process that
(40:20):
is then left in the product isa concern, because some of those
heavy metals that were detectedin many products that were also
certified as organic.
When you're looking at organictampons, there's two things to
know.
One, there is the growing ofcotton to an organic standard,
which is a sort of like forAmerica it would be USDA, for
(40:41):
Europe it would be to theEuropean regulations.
If you were in Turkey, it wouldbe to the Turkish government
regulations and they're allgoverned by an overarching
organization called IFO to makesure that those agricultural
standards for organics meet thesame criterion standards.
But then it's processing.
So how is that productprocessed?
So if you're processing thecotton to no known standard, how
(41:04):
do you know that cotton ends upin your product comes from an
organic farm?
So the global organic textilestandards is that processing.
It's the only standard that isapproved by the USDA.
So nature care tampons arecertified to the global organic
textile standards.
So that's from farm to end ofprocessing.
(41:25):
So you know, for tampons, lookfor the global organic textile
standard.
It's a little green logo butit'll say GOTS on it and there's
a whole load of standards inthere, not only just for
production and processing.
There's all sorts of thingsthat are not permitted and are
tested, independently tested for, but it also there's also a
component of environmental andsocial care in there.
(41:47):
So they make sure that thepeople who are working in these
you know if they're producingcotton or dyeing stuff or
processing they're not beingexploited.
So if you're buying somethingChina, unless it's a global
organic textile standardcertified product, you're
probably not going to know a lotabout what those standards are.
So that's number one For ourpads.
(42:09):
We use certified organic cotton.
We use FSC and PEFC, which is aprocess for how wood is grown,
is grown.
Our forest is managedecologically, is processed
without chlorine of anydescription.
We use um.
We use home compost certifiedbiofilms as a barrier.
That's made from plant startbut the whole product is then
(42:32):
certified compostable so you canput it in industrial composting
.
You could actually put in adomestic compost bin but it
would take you a bit longer thanit would in industrial
composting.
So looking for certificationsoutside of a government
regulation usually gives youmore than the state's giving you
.
The state systems is basicallythe minimum.
(42:53):
So the fact that you know toxicshock syndrome went on unchecked
for so long was an argumentover what causes it.
Is it the absorbency?
Is it the fiber type?
Who decides?
Is it the industry?
Generally, the research comesfrom the industry.
The only independent researchthat's been done conducted into
toxic shock syndrome and thetypes of fibers used by you new
(43:15):
york university med school backin the mid 90s, and nature care
products were the only productsin that research that they could
not generate the toxin thatcreates toxic shock syndrome.
So there's sort of safety issuesaround a product, there's
performance and there's qualityAt the end of life.
You want to know that when youfinish with the product it's not
(43:36):
going to end up in a landfillor it's going to get washed down
the rivers and out to sea or ifyou, you know, if you burn it,
you're shoving a load of dioxinsand toxins up your chimney
stack.
So there is, there is a lot ofthings to consider, but there
are very few organizations thatum within a state system that
would would give you that itcomes from external agencies.
(43:58):
Um, the environmentalprotection agency, you know, is
governed by.
You know this.
Obviously that can changedepending on the politics of the
of the time, but for me, um I,because I've been in an american
market for a long, long time, II hear that people will put
good stead by Europeanregulations because we have
(44:20):
European cosmetic regulations,we have safety regulations for
production of end products.
So do your research, but don'trely on the state as a stamp of
what is good.
Look for the global organictextile standard.
Look for the global organictextile standard.
Look for, you know, anindependent accreditation that
(44:42):
that is, is valued across,across markets and in that way,
you, you, you can be sure thatyou are avoiding the kind of
processes, pesticides, heavymetals, pfos you know we'll.
Pfos are, like you know, thelatest, the latest monster, the
(45:04):
latest Frankenstein that youknow those of us who are
environmentalists have knownabout.
This has come in for decades.
But if so, if you wear, if youchoose to buy you know period
underwear, you need to look atwhat they're made from, because
you know pfos is is part of thematerial, the processing that
makes them waterproof what isthat saying?
Speaker 2 (45:26):
what are you saying pfos?
Speaker 1 (45:28):
yeah, they're they're basically, uh, they're
fluorochlorians.
They basically they're they'recalled forever chemicals.
They're, um, they stay in theenvironment in the I mean you're
probably drinking it.
I mean it's so pernicious inthe environment.
In the water, I mean you'reprobably drinking it.
I mean it's so pernicious inthe environment it's almost
impossible to get.
And such now that, um, you knowteflon pans, you know they.
(45:49):
They contain the samefluorocarbons that are absorbed
into your body.
So we're probably all highlypolluted by now.
Because when you come back toregulatory things, when you rely
on an industry to tell yousomething safe based on your own
research, you know what isthere for the regulatory
industry.
Okay, you've told, showed us.
We're not going to go and checkit ourselves because we don't
(46:09):
have the money, we don't havethis, we don't have this, we
don't have the probablytechnicians to do that.
We'll, you know, we'll look atthe safety and effectiveness.
We'll review it over Now.
Now these things have been inthe environment for so long, the
agencies like the FDA andHealth Canada and the European
Union are looking at the safetyof these ingredients and saying,
(46:30):
sorry, we're going to ban thesefluorocarbons because they're,
they're everywhere and they'recreating you know, they're
creating life-changing,life-ending conditions.
So where do you?
I mean it's the hodgepodge,because, yeah, I've known that
(46:51):
the regulatory authorities,wherever they are in the world,
are not looking after consumers.
Independent organizations thatare having the ethos of looking
to protect nature and to protecthealth are the organisations
that are most likely to belooking at the impact of these
products.
So, made Safe EWG in someinstances.
(47:12):
You know the Women's Voices forthe Earth, although you know,
in some places there have beenproducts that have been raised
as being wonderful that turn outto be, you know, contain heavy
metals or contain fluorochloricchlorine.
So it's look for the validityof the certifications that
people have got.
Are they just a made up thing?
(47:34):
That, you know, is greenwashing.
Greenwashing is the term.
You know it's greenwashing.
Greenwashing is the term or isit?
Is it really something that'sindependent and has real science
behind it?
Because we shouldn't take thesethings.
We shouldn't take these thingslightly, because we're lathering
stuff on our bodies every dayand you know, the skin is a
great organ for absorbing intothe body, I mean that's, and we
(47:59):
women use so many products, sowe're a great we're a great.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
We're a great body of consumers.
Oh, yeah, they.
I mean just consumerism ingeneral, is it really blows my
mind how addicted we are ashumans to products and needing
something so instant.
So I have a.
I have a couple of questionsbefore we close it out.
And that is so.
Look for that, look for theGOTS certificate and that's
(48:30):
green.
It'll be green and I'll lookfor a picture and show everybody
.
But so we're looking for that.
What are we like trying to stayaway from?
I'm seeing like scented tampons, like all these weird I don't
know.
It feels unnatural in a sense.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, to our tampons.
You know some tampons arelabeled as organic.
That also, if they're, ifthey're all, if they're
certified to the organic to um,um, it's the ocs organic content
standard you can.
You don't have to be 100organic to be to have the ocs.
You can have what.
You can have a syntheticoverwrap, you can have a
synthetic string.
(49:08):
That's why I say look for gotsfor a tampon.
Okay, in pads, um, again, youknow they may make.
They may contain uh, regularplastic, petroleum-based plastic
.
For me personally and I standwith the Federal Trade
Commission on this the use ofthe term bamboo as a natural is
a fallacy.
Bamboo as a material is viscose.
(49:31):
There is no definition forbamboo as an independent fibre
fabric.
It's actually viscose.
And the FTC.
Just last I think it was lastyear or the year before
independent fiber fabric, it's,it's actually viscose and the
and what?
And the ftc, these?
Um, just last I think it waslast year, the year before um
find a couple of companies um,uh, that uh, millions of dollars
for making claims about bambooas being natural.
(49:53):
You know better for theenvironment.
It's a.
It's a product that is derivedfrom bamboo that uses horrendous
chemicals to process it.
So, whilst it might be nice togrow bamboo in an environment,
as long as it doesn't become asort of you know a crop that is
now quite valuable and thereforeit's grown less naturally.
The actual process of gettingfrom bamboo to make a fiber is
(50:16):
highly toxic.
So you can go look at the FTCruling on the term of bamboo.
They can't call it bamboozlingand actually you can be
prosecuted for making naturalclaims for bamboo.
So I would say that you knowbamboo is, you know bamboozling
is the ultimate in greenwashingand that it's a natural material
.
So you know, look for organiccotton, natural material.
(50:44):
So you know, look for organiccotton.
And you know the resources forthe product have come from
managed, sustainable resourcesand you can see the track, the
trailing for it in theircertification of where it's come
from.
So washables, reusables, arefine as long as you, you know,
make sure that those washablesdon't contain materials that
also have um, fluorocarbons inthem and and and the instruction
(51:05):
to wash them three times beforeyou use it.
Please think of the environmentif you need to wash those
products three times before youuse them for your own safety.
Those, those fluorocarbons,those fluoroclorians, are being
washed into our water system toremain there forever.
They shouldn't be there in thefirst place.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
When you say washables, are you talking about
, like the inserts or the littlecups?
I don't understand.
You can get period underwear.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
You can get pads that are washable.
Look for an organic, washableproduct and and one that you
know has validation.
That it that it doesn't containPFAs, because there have been
cases that the Women's Voicesfor the Earth called out where
products were claiming that theywere they didn't contain PFAs
and when tested they did,because they're buying them from
(51:53):
.
Many of these products comefrom China.
So you know, chinese people areamazing, creative, productive
people, but you can't alwaystrust that the state.
You know the validations thatcome are actually valid, and we
know, you know from the workthat's been done that you know
(52:15):
bamboo is not a crediblematerial, um, and you can't call
it natural.
So, uh, but yes, you can.
You know menstrual cups, um,but again, you know, don't treat
them, as you've still got to beconscious that there is still
risk for toxic shock syndromeusing a menstrual cup, um, so
(52:37):
you just need to be, you know,not let your guards down, but
it's what really suits you, andyou can have a whole mix of them
if you're traveling and youdon't, you know you, I mean for
nature care with compostable.
You can bury them in the ground, um, bury them deep around,
they'll compost.
But if you want to take, um youknow a washable or a reusable,
make sure the place that you'regoing to that the water is
potable, that it's clean water,that you can wash them in, don't
(52:59):
you know?
If it's not clean water, youdon't want to be, you know in.
So there are all sorts ofconsiderations that you have to
think about.
It's time and place and purpose, um, but, yep, you know, with
this there is I mean we, we areavailable across america in
natural product stores wholefoods, whatever and we're also
available online.
(53:19):
Now we've now got an e-commercesite, um, so you can go shop at
naturecarecom amazon.
We're on amazon too.
Um, I mean, there's there's noreason why we're not accessible.
Um, but I think you really haveto look at you what your own
personal choices and what yourneeds are.
Um, I mean, we have dry andlight inco products as well,
(53:40):
which is for, you know, sneezymoments, as we call it um, I'm
actually people think aboutfolks who have linear light
stress incontinence as being oldpeople, but it actually is the
highest instance between womenof 18 and 25 um, especially for
repeated cystitis, or.
I mean, you know there's thiskind of thing um that you know
(54:03):
we have sneezy moment pads too.
So there is.
You know, there's a whole loadof things that came out of my
journey, um, that tried toaddress.
There's so much plastic inthese products.
I've got to get these productsand design them without the
plastics and without thechemicals, and then I suppose
for me, our final part, in short, is that in this time times
(54:26):
that we're in at the moment, youknow, the biggest resource that
we have is our own kindness,kindness to others, and we
probably found that during Covidthat all we could give was
kindness and support to eachother.
So for the past couple of yearswe've been running our Be Kind
project and you can go to ourwebsite at naturecarecom and you
(54:46):
sign up, and it's not, you know, there's no, it's just a way of
reminding you that each day youcan do something to be kind to
yourself and also, if you feelso inclined, to be kind to
someone else, and that might be,you know, a friend, someone you
don't know, or just somethingin the environment.
So nature care is a product.
It is not just a product, it isas I said, it's it's my whole
(55:10):
life, out there in a package ofseveral packages.
But the giving back is hisintention is to make, make our
world and ourselves better forit, because the one thing that
distinguishes us from anythingelse is that we bleed every
month, and when we stop bleedingevery month, we think about how
(55:34):
we look after our sisters, whoneed our help, because we're
then, you know, probably olderand maybe grandmothers and
looking after the children.
So it's a part of our, of whatis special about us and unique
about us, and, um, as you have,you rightly pulled out that we
need to take care of our health,because there's not really any
other organizations out therewho care to take care of our
(55:56):
health for us.
They're just, it's just amarginal nod to it rather than a
yeah, an in-depth view.
Speaker 2 (56:04):
So oh yes, I again back to the whole america thing.
We gotta get.
We gotta get it together, man,because I I feel like we're just
when I say we just the thewhole system is in the business
of just keeping people sick,treating us like numbers, and
I'm just so.
I'm fucking over it, susie, I'mover it it is that you're
(56:27):
looking after yourself.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
And I think I mean I, probably my parents, you know,
um, they, they didn't have thebenefit.
And I, we know Britain's got anational health service and
you've got, you've got, you know, your care system.
That's on its teachers.
But but you know, there'snothing.
We always used to look toamerica that that you know.
Let's look at americans.
They're so well, maybe this isnot a good point to say, but we
(56:50):
used to look to america and say,look how you know americans,
you know, especially, especiallythis time where they know it's
expensive to look after poorhealth, that they have this
mindset of looking after theirhealth so they don't have to
face the bills of poor health.
Um, and that seemed to us to bea very american thing, and you
know it takes two years for whathappens in america to filter
(57:13):
over to to britain as a concept.
So you know, in the 80s we hadall this like, yeah, we're all
going to take care of our healthand we're all going to be
healthy, but we, we have thebenefit, we have.
Well, we say for the benefit ofa free health service.
So we do pay, you know, we paya national insurance, but but
it's free at the point of access, of need.
But there is also that thatwhen you, when you and I, and I
(57:36):
think it's the most thing one ofthe things that makes us
British, to be honest and butit's in trouble because it's not
.
You know it's so much.
There's so much ill health.
You know it's so much.
There's so much ill health.
There's so much unhealthypeople with obesity and diabetes
and alcohol abuse.
You know effects of drugs.
You know people who smashthemselves up driving because
they're driving crazy.
(57:56):
That puts pressure on thathealth service.
If we can step back and saylet's just take care of
ourselves a bit better so thatwe don't need this emergency
system, but so much.
But we know that at time ofpoint now, I had breast cancer
in 2019.
So I, you know, I'm thankfulthat I, you know there was a
(58:18):
national health service there totake care of me.
I know my surgery, myradiotherapy, um, that that's,
and I didn't have to worrywhether it was going to bankrupt
me.
Not just for America, but thereare other countries around the
world where you know there is noability to seek health care
because there is no money for itand that makes your life, you
(58:41):
know, troublesome.
It makes your decisionsdifficult.
So looking after your health asmuch as you can, if you have
resource to do that, makes themost sense to me.
Um, you know that's not alwayseasy if you don't have access to
good food, you know you don'thave access to good water, or
you have a, you know, a job thatworks you 12, 15 hours a day.
(59:01):
It's difficult, but that'swhere kindness comes in.
Then we can see we see peoplearound us like that.
Let's just help them out.
Let a day.
It's difficult, but that'swhere kindness comes in.
Then we can see we see peoplearound us like that.
Let's just help them out.
Let's, even if it's just, youknow, baking a pie and taking it
around to them, or you know,looking after their kids for an
hour so they can have a sleep,or this is part of you know, we
have to say that we have to takecare of ourselves, but we all
(59:24):
need to take care of community.
We need community becausethat's what we, as humans,
evolved to be.
Um, so yeah, in my littlenature care way, it's a
community of staff of 35 yearsthat we've been trying to do
something good and be kind and,you know, change the way that we
look at, how we take things outof nature and then put it back
(59:47):
in.
But we can do this every day.
We can do this in our everydaylife.
Kindness doesn't cost anything,does it?
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Sure, doesn't.
I like to say it is free 99.
Not 399, free 99, y'all so Free99.
Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
But I know well, you know, on your point of.
You know we all know what's.
You know this is difficult.
When there's a political changeand we feel like there's not.
You know it might not suit usor it might not, it might feel
frightening or it might feel,you know, might feel some people
may feel joy, but it's it's.
It's a very short time, youknow time I mean time moves on.
(01:00:23):
I mean I've just, just as in abusiness in Britain, you know,
in the time that I've been inbusiness, we've been through
four recessions and we came outthe other side of it.
You know we came through 2008when there was a crash.
You know resilience we talkedabout teaching resilience.
It's something that we all needto learn, because and and and
(01:00:45):
hope that things do change.
But what makes things change isour own perspective and the
things that we do to help thatchange come along.
Um, and you know, tomorrow'sanother day.
I learned that through my,through my breast cancer and
radiotherapy.
That, you know, today is achallenge, uh and but, but each
day it's, we're winning, we'regetting through it and I'll meet
(01:01:08):
whatever comes next and that's,that's a good.
I feel that's my, that's myguiding star.
We'll deal with this today andwe'll plan for tomorrow.
Um, but I won't be deterred bywhat comes tomorrow, I'll just
plan a different way the nextday.
Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Oh, remember that in business too oh uh, full-bodied
chills like that was.
That was so good, and I want toclose it out with just saying
that you said something earlierwhenever I asked you about your
you know your opinion ontechnology and business
perspective, parentalperspective, just, I mean human
perspective right, I love howyou talked about your sons being
(01:01:48):
able to use a computer.
We called that the familycomputer.
It took like 20 minutes to getthat bad boy going.
But I just hope that whoever'slistening today and I'm going to
ask you because I'm supercurious, you've got so much
wisdom how old you are oh, wow,I was 72 on December, the 16th
(01:02:16):
just gone.
Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Okay you look.
But I just want to tell you I Ihad some blood tests on because
I had pneumonia earlier in theyear, my mother, my mother had
pneumonia, I got pneumonia atall these blood tests.
And because I had pneumoniaearlier in the year, my mother
had pneumonia, I got pneumonia.
I had all these blood tests andcame up with this kind of
genetic condition that I have istwo out of three of
anticoagulants they can eitherbe called haemophilia or clots
and my consultant came back andsaid oh, we need aggressive
(01:02:41):
cardiovascular management,cardiovascular management.
So, being a you know, person ofscience, I thought I don't even
know what my status quo is,because I've been, I've been,
I've been involved in sport allmy life.
You know whether it's any, allkinds of sport, and I gave up
squash just before I playedpremier squash, just before I
had my breast cancer in 2019.
(01:03:01):
So I need to know my status quo.
So this last weekend I hoiked upto the north of England to a
place called Tomorrow's Wellnessand it's kind of.
You have cardiologists,consultant cardiologists and you
, basically, I, basically, me,basically, I spent two hours of
having my ultrasound on all ofmy arteries.
(01:03:21):
I had ECGs, I had body massvisceral fat, cardiovascular
facility all this.
My arteries are perfect.
My, my, my visceral fat isperfect.
My cardiovascular capabilitieswere off the scale of excellent
(01:03:43):
and whilst I was on the bikecycling through the hills of
Northumberland, on the screen tothe killers, um, all your vital
signs are on the wall and thecardiology says I have the
cardiovascular system of a 35year old.
Get the fuck out Susie honestlyso, because I've played sport
(01:04:04):
all my life.
I've been a vegetarian since Iwas 11, you know, um, the one
thing that I do have ishypertension.
So when they take your bloodpressure, you really need to see
.
I got white coat syndrome ifyou, you know, if you take my
blood pressure, it goes throughthe roof.
So you know, and and the thefeedback that cardiologists gave
to me was that one, I know whatmy internal systems.
(01:04:26):
They're okay.
I don't need to worry abouthaving these two.
You know genetic things, thethings going off in my blood,
that what I put in the bank allmy life good, healthy eating,
exercising, moderate you knowthis.
I don't I drink, I don't drink,I don't smoke will drink, you
know, a glass of wine now again,but I, you know, I feel like,
(01:04:48):
ok, I know where I am at now.
I've got the internal system ofa 35 year old.
I must go and do some weighttraining to maintain my weight,
but I was off the scale.
I was off the scale ofexcellent by 25 percent.
So that's given that I haven'tdone a lot of cardiovascular
(01:05:09):
exercise.
Last year, having had pneumonia,I was pretty proud of that.
So I'm not afraid of being 72people say to me, we don't think
of you being 72.
Um, I feel you know, I feelthat one.
You have to keep healthy tokeep going.
You have to keep healthy foryour kids and I've got
grandchildren as well, young,young, very young grandchildren.
But I feel good that, um, I,I've kind of taken the natural
(01:05:33):
route, subconsciously, that'sgiven me that kind of money in
the bank to be able to go outand do whatever I want to want
and not worry about whether I'mgoing to have a heart attack or
a stroke or you know whatever,because it's the same in
everything you do, what you putin the bank at the early start.
But it's never too late.
(01:05:54):
It's never too late to makethings better.
And and I was prepared for that, you know, given this genetic
condition, that whatever I needto do to stop anything happening
, I'm prepared to do it becausewe women are strong.
I think we're strong, I thinkwe're determined, we know we're
carers and we carry the weightof stuff.
We carry the weight ofresistance, we carry the weight
(01:06:14):
of support and we need to behealthy and mindful that a lot
of stuff relies on us and I'mvery conscious this is quite a
lot of stuff that relies on meand I'm glad that I've got the
internal system of a 35 year old, keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
That's incredible, because I'm 35 and I bet my
internal system is that of an 80year old, Never feel ready to
change Well that's what I wastrying to get at.
It was like I wouldn't haveguessed how old you are.
Never would have guessed it.
Not that it's.
I wouldn't have guessed how oldyou are.
Never would have guessed it.
Not that it's.
I don't even consider that old,to be honest, like I.
That's what trips me up is whenpeople get offended about.
(01:06:51):
Oh, you asked my age.
I'm like you're just asking howmany years of wisdom I have.
Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Is what I feel like you always get right everything
you will learn.
You learn your wisdom frommeeting other people who pass on
that wisdom but you're not.
Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
That's, that's, I think that was the grand scheme.
I was trying to say is likeyeah you're not.
Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
You're never too old like you're out you're killing
it, it's fine.
It's fine, yeah, and you neverknow how long you got.
I mean, I think I'm having thebreast cancer.
It's just like I'm always lucky.
I was lucky in the diagnosisand I have to take oestrogen
blockers, which also means, likeyou know, the protection that
oestrogen gives you for yourcardiovascular system was also a
(01:07:31):
worry for me.
So I've been taking oestrogenblockers, you know, medicated,
for five years.
How is this impacted?
Well, actually, you're allright.
Okay, I must have good genes,apart from those other two.
Thanks, mom.
Dad must be all that dirt.
I think it must be all the dirtand poverty that we were all I
(01:07:52):
know there was never any dirt.
My mom was like, you know,super, oh, crikey, no, but yeah,
good genes.
You, you can't help your genes,yeah it is well.
Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
It was just.
I just loved how you ended it.
You're like thanks, you're socute.
Oh, this has been so good.
Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
So thank you and lovely to to talk to you as well
and meet you and and I loveyour cupboard.
I mean my cup is a bit posh nowbecause my son's played the
piano stick.
I don't play the piano.
I used to have an accordion butit's just there for show Cause.
When they come around they'llplay it, but I can't.
I might play a few chords nowand again, pretend I know how to
(01:08:35):
play.
Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
It looks really beautiful behind you.
Oh well, thank you so muchagain.
I hope that whoever's listeninguses this, as you were saying,
as a tool to advance themselves,to expand their minds and to, I
guess, transcend.
You just are such a beautifulstory of transcendence and I
(01:08:59):
thank you so much for sharingyour time, your wisdom, your
heart.
Oh, you're incredible and Ijust feel so honored to have had
you on my show.
So, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
You're welcome, and you're always welcome, to the
soulful place that is Bristol.
Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Girl don't, even, don't joke, I will come see you.
No, come, come find me.
She said come find me.
Okay, yeah, come find me, notbad Look she said come find me.
Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Okay, don't try me, not bad, look, you'll get an
email when I'm feeling squirrely.
Okay, you know how good we areat pushing statues into water.
Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
I can't deal with you .
I can't deal with you.
Oh my god, no, I bristol's onthe list now you, yeah,
definitely you've done messed up.
I just mean you're so cool that, like I have to come meet you.
You're definitely you've donemessed up.
I just mean you're so cool that, like I have to come meet you.
Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
You're amazing, you've messed up you might find
me back on the squash court evenonce I've got these manky
wrists sorted out.
I know too much gardening okay,what is squash.
What is squash?
What well?
You play racquetball, which isokay, um, and I think paddle
balls, paddle balls, it squasheslike the smaller ball and the
smaller head of racket and youbeat the living shit out of the
(01:10:09):
ball against the front wall,until you.
It's a very anaerobic activity.
Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
Oh, we just call it wall ball.
I think you call it wall ball,that's what I call it.
Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
That's what I call it .
Yeah, yeah, we taught our kids.
My husband played squash too.
Both our sons played squashfrom a very early age.
They basically you teach yourkids.
This is, this is my wisdom as amother you teach your kids to do
everything that you want to doas an adult, so you can take
them with you and you teach them.
You make sure they do the samething.
(01:10:42):
So you're not going in off.
No, you're not doing swimming.
If you're going to do football,you both have to do swimming.
You can both do football.
So we taught them squash, wetaught them tennis, we taught
them skiing um, but they bothplay piano.
That was just for their ownenjoyment.
Um, uh, football, rugby, hockey, so, but the things that you
want to do as an adult, you makesure they're good at it.
(01:11:03):
Come on, we're going skiing.
Okay, now they're all betterthan us.
That's the thing they get to bebetter than you.
And then you, they're always.
That's the thing, that's theachievement.
You know, my husband saidbecause he used to play water
polo at university, so theswimmer.
And the day that our eldest sonbeat him in the pool, he was.
(01:11:27):
So he said james, just beat me.
Well, he was like 17 orsomething.
Well, that's what you want,isn't it?
You don't want to be betterthan your kids forever, but you
want them to be better than youor crestford.
Now both actually both kidsbeat both of us at squash and we
both played premier squash.
So that's hilarious.
Well done, well done yeah, thisguy hurt the ego just a little
(01:11:50):
bit at first, but I'm glad thatthey're the number the hours you
spend watching hockey, fieldhockey or or squash and and
thinking, oh my god, are theygoing to get injured?
And you're moving with everyball.
You're thinking, oh no, don'tlook it's, it's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
Yeah, the older you get like it's all I do risk
assessment of everything I'mlike, analyze and hold on, so I
get that but yeah, yeah now nowI'm getting wall ball squash I
gotta get make sure you wear eyeguards okay, well, okay, I
didn't know that.
(01:12:27):
Now I know, um, but I'm gonnaprep that way I can come kick
your ass whenever I meet you.
Okay, I'll, be well, I'll bewell, I'll be waiting for you
because apparently, I mean youcan probably kick my ass if you
have the internal I haven'tplayed since 2019, um, but I I
my cardiology says so.
Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
He said you just need to go in the gym and do weights
, um, for 80 of your workoutneeds to be weights and 20 can't
.
Don't you need to worry aboutcardiovascular way off scale, um
, but there's nothing wrong withmy muscular weight.
But apparently here's a tipapparently when you get to 75 so
I've got a bit of way to go yetyour body starts to digest your
muscle mass for food sources,which is why you see a bit of
weight to go.
Yet your body starts to digestyour muscle mass, your food
(01:13:06):
source, which is why you see alot of old people of you know
bony, because they basicallydigest their muscle mass.
Unless you keep your musclemass up with weight bearing
exercise.
So, and I hate going in, I hateweight bearing, no, I just
despise being in a gym.
And if there's nothing to winif you're not playing a sport,
what's the point apart fromtraining for that sport?
(01:13:27):
It's, um, yeah, it's so.
I'm gonna have to get myself apersonal trainer to motivate me
to go in the gym, becauseotherwise I'll find other
reasons to get on the bike thatis so hilarious, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
Okay, all right, susan, we gotta go.
Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
I think we'd stay here all day, have a great life.
See you in Bristol.
Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
You think I'm kidding , I'm going, no, no.
Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
I'm telling you come, you come, stay, all five of you
.
Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
We've probably got enough room, oh no, no, I was
thinking maybe like a solo trip.
Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Solo trip.
Yeah, sounds like a lot.
I've got to do a recce.
You might be dangerous.
Out there in the wild west thewild west of england they throw
statues in rivers.
Careful, I've got to go on myown and I'll come back and let
you know oh my god okay, oh okay, great to speak to you thanks
(01:14:25):
for tolerating me.
Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
You know, I can't quit laughing, oh my god.
Okay, have a great day, susie.
Thank you so much.
And we all, you know, we all think you have to make
big statements and make bigthings.
You know to you don't need toget on a, you don't need to get
on a Greenpeace ship and sail tothe Arctic to save a whale
which is fabulous to do that.
But you can, you know, you cansupport.
You can support the notion thatwe don't need so much plastic
because it's polluting the ocean.
(00:20):
You know, just for us, like allof nature care pads are
compostable and our pant linersare.
They're certified compostableand we went through a lot of
science and testing with anexternal agency to prove that.
But we know that you know, in ayear, for the amount of
products that we sold, that in awhole year of just you know, if
(00:41):
you were just buying naturecare products and using nature
care products, you preventedwhat is effectively um plastic
the size of a blue whale goingin to our marine environments.
Ladies and gentlemen, ladiesand gentlemen, you're listening
(01:03):
to.
Just Women Talking Shit withyour host, Jacqueline.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Cotton, jacqueline Cotton.
So I was reading, I was readingup on you before before we
hopped on, and I feel like I'min front of a legend.
I have to hear all the things.
Can you introduce yourself andtell us about your company?
(01:36):
I know you're a founder of abig company and you just
mentioned maybe some big thingsare happening.
I don't know, but I can't waitto hear all about it.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, so, yeah, I'm Susie Hewson, I'm the founder of
Nature Care, and that startedway back in 1989, which was a
campaign that I initiated toraise awareness and bring about
change in the use of toxicchemicals and synthetics and
(02:04):
plastics in feminine hygieneproducts.
And in order to do that, inorder to design those products,
I had to create a company,because prior to that, I'd been
all sorts of things I trained asa graphic designer and I did
postgrad in education so I couldteach.
I also was a fitness instructorfor 17 years and I had two
(02:25):
young children.
Both of them are under three.
So I just suddenly thought Ihad this big idea that I was
going to make a difference bymaking industry change their
minds about how they producethings, and when they didn't.
That was where I was going tostep in.
I was going to design my ownproducts, and so that was where
(02:46):
I was going to step in.
I was going to design my ownproducts, and so that was the.
That was the idea, and it cameto me in the uh after a tv
program that I'd watched aboutthe use of chlorine bleaching in
the industry all paper productsthat left contamination in our
environment of dioxins, which iscarcinogen and also remains in
the products.
But this is also at the sametime, around this time, that
toxic shock syndrome was hittingthe world.
(03:09):
So there were lots of thingsthat I needed to I was
campaigning to raise awarenessof, and there's that moment
where you decide well, if noone's going to do anything about
it, then I'll have to dosomething about it.
That was, that was the beginningand the formation of the
company, and actually this, thisis my, this is my my home.
(03:29):
I I work in an office, um, nottoo far away from here, where
our logistics and and all mystaff are in the UK and in the
US.
We're in Colorado and um and inOntario, but I was in this
office for 10 years on my own,believe it or not, um, and
working for nothing, effectively.
So everything that um that camefrom the, from the company, was
(03:52):
put back into the company.
So this is like my.
I only returned to this state ofbeing in this office, um,
during covid and I suddenlythought I know everyone's
working from home and it was abig stretch.
I mean.
I thought, well, actually Ifeel quite comfortable, I've
done this before, I was ahead ofthought.
I know everyone's working fromhome and it was a big stretch.
I mean I thought, well,actually I feel quite
comfortable.
I've done this before.
I was ahead of my time.
I was working from home all thetime when it wasn't the thing
to do, so it just felt, yeah,I'm just back in my, my, my
(04:15):
clear space.
So, and we are, we're not ahuge company where we're
classified as an SME.
There are only 22 of us in theuk, um, there's, uh, in north
america, there's six or seven.
Um, so we're we are.
We are relatively a powerhouseof women and a few men I love, I
(04:35):
love all this so much.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
First off, you just made me feel like a baby.
You said you started this in1989 that's when I was born.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I wasn't even born then probably 1989, and uh and
it was 19.
It was 19, I think it was, 1995or 96, when um we eventually got
uh got on to to access to to aninternet site we could dial up
and we designed our website andmost of the people that we were
(05:05):
communicating with were mostlymen in research positions in
universities and research places, because they were the only
others who could we're at theend of the Internet, I guess
with help, to spread the wordamazingly, and that was kind of
six, six years or more ofworking outside of any kind.
(05:29):
I mean it was libraries andtelephones.
There were no faxes, we didn'thave a printer, they weren't
home use printers, so the worldwas different.
But you know those problemsstill need to be resolved.
So I guess it's a lesson thatyou don't need big tech around
you to solve a problem, you needresolution to do it and you
know the sort of energy andwherewithal to find where your
(05:51):
assets are, where your resourcesare, and just keep throwing
yourself at it until you bringabout change.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
A hundred percent.
I mean, I know I'm like I feellike I'm still very new on the
entrepreneur journey, but I feellike you were an entrepreneur
way before.
It was cool.
Like everybody wants to be anentrepreneur now, right.
Like they have no idea theactual blood, sweat and tears
that go into it and it's themost expensive hobby ever.
(06:19):
Like you were saying, youdidn't pay yourself.
It's not a good lifestylechoice, usually, is it?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
If you are on a wellness, saying you didn't pay
yourself.
It's not a good lifestylechoice usually is it?
If you were on a wellness scale, you'd say, well, is that a
good wellness?
Is that a lifestyle choice?
I would choose.
Yeah, it is.
You know.
Someone says that you can'tchoose to be an entrepreneur.
Someone tells you you're anentrepreneur.
Those who think you know, thosewho are doing it, are just
(06:48):
plowing ahead on our route towhere we aim to be and hopefully
avoiding all the sort ofpitfalls and trip hazards that
go along the way on that journeyand learning from it.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And hopefully taking that knowledge on.
You said hopefully, that's theword y'all.
Hopefully, because I can't eventell you.
You know, like you will come incontact with the most wild
situations and it'll test youand like there's morals, there's
integrity, like it is an entirespiritual experience, in a way
(07:15):
and that you said it is ajourney that you can be.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
You know, that's where we're.
Our integrity and our moralsand our objectives and
obligations to nature and towomen's health is that.
That was our steering path.
We've never changed from thatan ethical, transparent,
(07:42):
functional, realistic option towhat was, you know, working on
those those road, road systems,asiders.
So, yeah, you have to makethose decisions along the way
and especially when you, likeyou say, when you're a new
company and finance is, um, itis a problem, can be a problem.
(08:03):
I mean I, I being a woman inbusiness, again, you're lucky in
that, you know, women havemoved forward.
Thankfully, we've all movedforward together in that when I
started, the banks didn't wantto listen to me.
You know they didn't want.
I wrote business plans and theydidn't want, they weren't happy
to want to offer me, you know,a loan or any kind.
There's no investors, it was anoverdraft.
I was going to want to offer me, you know, a loan or any kind.
(08:25):
There's no investors, it was anoverdraft.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I was going to say wasn't, and I just learned about
this, probably maybe six monthsto a year ago, but I don't know
.
It was like not too long agothat women could even get credit
cards on their own right.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You had to have your husband be on everything.
If you didn't have a husband,where are you going?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, like some of us don't.
What does some?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
of us out here don't need a husband.
No, it is, and that is how Imean.
God forbid that we ever go backto this kind of scenario where
women are treated assecond-class citizens or
incompetence or you know not.
You know too too hysterical tomake sensible choices.
I I mean women in business, inscience, in the arts.
We've kind of trodden this pathto make society see that and
(09:12):
come to understand.
What we already know aboutourselves is that we are
competent, brave women that canachieve whatever we want to.
Women have gone into space, youknow.
We've had women who've done,you know, legal challenges that
have been phenomenal.
We've had women who've done themost incredible surgery, who
(09:34):
invented all sorts of solutionsto ill health.
We have the way and the power.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Sometimes the means are not given to us yeah well,
they're taken away from us itwas, it was for sure, a man's
world.
We know that.
But like you sitting here andyou telling me that you started
this, like this idea came to youand began in 1989, shows that
like the strides the strides youhave seen, so much advancement
(10:04):
it's got a.
It kind of blows my mind.
I always wonder.
I want to touch base a littlebit more on the company and
feminine products and stuff likethat, because I have an
11-year-old girl, turning 12.
And I just literally learnedlast night through a client's
account who's a cycle syncer shehelps with womb health that
(10:24):
there are different kinds ofpads and that you should
probably have all of them.
And I'm just like there areobviously all these things I
don't know.
And then health wise, I havesome questions.
But I'm curious because you havegotten to see the different
phases of, like entrepreneurshipyou were talking about how,
(10:46):
fact, like fax machines, Iremember fax machines, I
remember having to copyeverything and like I remember
the dial-up and I rememberfloppy disks.
Okay, so I remember some of it.
But like, how are you, what isyour perspective on all this?
I think all the time, like whenI look at my children, I really
devices are so common and Idon't want it to be common.
(11:09):
So I'm curious if, like myperspective is like that, like
let's get back a little bit moreto nature and get grounded and
like away from technology,what's your perspective?
Because I know you've seen itboth ways yeah, I've got two
boys.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Um, my boys were growing up now but, um enough, I
wouldn't let them have phones.
I mean, they weren'tsmartphones back then, but it
was.
You know, it was phones and Ididn't want them to have a phone
.
And actually they acquired aphone before I even knew they
had a phone.
They were probably around maybe13.
But you know, they could havesome access to the Internet.
(11:45):
We were controlling it.
But now I mean I'm not againsttech.
I mean my husband's a computerscientist and a mathematician,
my oldest son's a biochemist andmy youngest one's a musician
and a squash player.
So I think that it's a balancein technology is a resource.
(12:10):
You know, humans have been onthis planet for a long time and
we've evolved with the use ofsome kind of technology.
And I know, for way, way, wayback it might have just been a
stick, it could have been astone.
So technology is a tool.
It's not, it should never beseen as a replacement for our
own ingenuity, our own adeptnessat using, you know, our fingers
(12:37):
and our eyes and our voices andour minds.
So I don't see technology as anevil, I see it as a tool.
But it's recognizing the limitsof that tool in as much as the
limits that you need to use itwithout replacing your own skill
base and your own growth.
(12:59):
So it becomes more and moredifficult.
Obviously because you knowsocial media is a huge thing and
you know one side is an amazingthing.
That's connected up communitiesacross the world talking to
each other, passing on ideas.
You know even our surgeons whocan do surgery over the Internet
with robotics.
So I mean you're reaching partswhere there never would be a
(13:20):
doctor, so there's so much thatwe have to be thankful for.
There never would be a doctor,so there's so much that we have
to be thankful for.
But it's recognizing for me,for me personally it was with my
children is that when itbecomes a useful tool to make
things uh, make to allow you toprogress your own skills and
abilities and knowledge, um, useit as a tool, don't use it as a
(13:42):
, as a sort of walking sticklike a crutch, yeah, like the
second nature.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, okay, I like that perspective.
I'm very grateful for it.
I mean, look, I was trying notto interrupt, but I'm like, I
mean, that's how we got here,like through social media
through the, this amazingconnection of the worldwide
internet.
I didn't ask I feel like youalready said it but where are
you based right now?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I'm here in.
Bristol in the southwest ofEngland, it's South California.
We're on the Atlantic justvirtually on the Atlantic, the
North Atlantic.
So, yeah, we're in thesouthwest of England and we're
sort of it's a fantastic place.
I wasn't born here.
I was born in the Midlands, inNottingham, in the southwest of
england, and, um, we're sort ofit's a fantastic place.
I wasn't born here, I was bornin in the midlands, in in
nottingham.
You know, the home of robinhood um, yeah, that's cool to be
(14:33):
able to say that, yeah, I'm thehome of robin hood um, and made
marion, of course, um.
So you know, the southwest isthis region where I am is is
much.
You know.
It's the arts we have.
You know the BBC natureprograms are all based here.
Itv, there's film studios, it'sthe creative arts, it's two
universities.
(14:53):
It's a place where you can comeand develop and be and no one
goes.
Oh my God, what's that?
It's a place of personalexpression and maybe outspoken
views.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Okay, well, what's the cost of living?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
It is a bit expensive down here because everyone
wants to be here.
I think Bristol was this yearclassified as the best place in
Britain to live.
Um, and so a lot of people mostpeople go to the universities.
After they finish.
A lot of them I think it'ssomething like 80% stay in the
area.
Oh, there's a lot of those arejobs and, you know, in the arts
(15:37):
and sciences and AI and tech.
You know it's, it's a good mixand we have a huge, um, uh,
diverse population as well.
So you know, we have that thatbenefit of all cultures mixing
together and and learning fromeach other.
So it's a cool place to be.
I like it oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Well, I don't know anywhere else it sounds.
It sounds amazing.
If you I mean you speak highlyof it and you've been there a
while.
It sounds like so okay, becauseon my bucket list I got to get
pardon my French, the fuck outof Mississippi.
I'm in the United States and solike I get to travel, like I'll
be in Chicago, illinois, nextweek and I've gotten to do like
(16:18):
some little mountain trips andthe plan is to buy a camper.
I pulled my little my daughter,out of homeschool I mean out of
school and homeschooling herand just really trying to like
preserve her innocence.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I think you know, and I think, rather than the view
of preserving innocence, I thinkit's more.
It's more a case ofstrengthening up the, the, the
resilience, because you know ifyou, if you're not resilient,
it's easy to be lose yourinnocence.
I think, and what you're doingis fantastic because you know if
you, if you're not resilient,it's easy to be lose your
innocence, I think, and whatyou're doing is fantastic
because you're giving it that oh, I love that, every I love that
(16:52):
when I tell somebody this andthe people around here might not
get it, but it's just reallygood to like get that
confirmation.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
But what I was saying was oh god, what was I saying?
Oh, gotta get out ofMississippi, right?
So I'm making an effort to dothat and take her and like I
want to take my son here andthere, but he's littler so it'll
just be a lot harder.
And he's got his dad here and wehave three other boys, so we're
a big blended family.
A little backstory, so any ofthis that's a great team, so it
(17:28):
makes sense.
Thank you, um, but I want toget out of the country and so
all of over there like I want tosee it all, but every time I
get on like a chat with somebodyso bristol I've not had anybody
say, oh, like bristol isamazing.
I haven't heard about bristolyet.
So my question is long storyshort, where do I go?
When I go to bristol, likewhat's, what do I have to say?
What?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
is the time of year you come.
I mean, you can say Bristol isat the top or the, the hub of
the southwest of England.
So, um, if you come in, uh,june, is it June?
End of June you can go toGlastonbury.
You go to the music festival.
Um, there is, uh, the harbourfestival.
Around bristol, in north of usis bath.
So if you like a bit of regencystuff, there's, uh, you know,
(18:10):
the jane austen vibe and romanbaths and the minerva fountains,
um, a rat, but in bristol it'sthis culture, it's arts and
music and food, um, and, andwe're quite a small city and you
know we're in a, you know we'refocused on 260 degrees
countryside around us.
So, and then the coast.
(18:30):
So you know you can go surfing.
Actually there's a surf lakejust down the road from me.
It's called the Wave.
I can walk and I can surfAbsolutely and great coffee
afterwards.
So there's a surfing lake andgreat coffee afterwards as.
So there's a surfing lake.
Um, we've got, you know, thereis whatever you want, um, that
will give you a sort of you know, a broad cultured exposure to
(18:53):
things that bristol and thesouthwest has it in shed loads.
I mean, you go into devon,south devon.
You got the coastal footpathsum beaches down into cornwall.
You got on the north.
You got the rugged cliffs andthe smashing atlantic waves and
surf.
You got on the north.
You got the rugged cliffs andthe smashing Atlantic waves and
surf.
You go into the south coast alittle bit more gentle, sandy
beaches, nice and warm sort of.
You bring your VW, camper, vanand park up and go.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
You were like just spewing off all my life dreams.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Right now we're welcome we welcome everyone in
Bristol.
We're a welcoming community.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Susie, I think I want to be like you when I grow up.
Yeah, you're welcome, thank you.
I take that as applause.
You're just so awesome, you,you are.
You're very like, chill, verychill, relaxed and just I don't
know.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I think you know I like you a lot you go in when
you are in a business.
I mean, I've had a lot ofchallenges in this role.
You know the things that I wastalking about and continue to
talk about around, the issues ofthe products, kind of you know
what's in period products, evenjust you know some that are
claiming to be natural.
I've got issues with them.
(20:01):
Or talking about toxic shocksyndrome.
I've got issues with them.
Or talking about toxic shocksyndrome.
I mean, I've had, you know,I've had run the gambit of
lawyers who, from the corporates, who want to close me, close my
voice down, and I'm I pridemyself on, you know I've never
said anything that I could neverdo in court.
You know, truth andtransparency is what we're about
(20:29):
.
So I've taken, I feel like youknow, in this agenda to bring
this to all people who bleed isthat I've had to take on not
just the challenge of setting upa company, creating a product,
production, distribution,getting you know people to stock
the product, getting consumersto trust and buy the product.
I've also had to sort of, youknow, remind people that there
are products out there that alsotell you they are the greatest
thing for you, but actuallythey're not telling you the full
(20:50):
truth.
It's a simple it seems like asimple idea to do something, but
you have to be prepared to takeon your challenges and your
stone throwers, many of whichcame from the corporates who,
you know, did not like that.
I was shaking the, you know,the menstrual periods category
(21:14):
and speaking the truth.
So I feel like I, you know, Iwear my battle scars on my body
for all women out there so thatthey could.
You know, this category neverexisted until nature care came
into the, into this area formany, many, many years, you know
, at least a decade and a half,maybe two decades.
So I was fighting a battle onmy own, um, but it, but it was,
(21:38):
you know, it was, it was.
It's a bit of a verdict.
I suppose I'm doing it for us,um, and that that is what keeps
me going and that's why I'mstill doing it now.
Um, you know, there's a lot ofmoney in the industry.
There's brands being bought uphere, there and everywhere, you
know, and um, uh, you knowthere's a lot of products.
I made many products.
(21:59):
I mean we, we manufacture allour products in europe and our
raw materials are sourced fromEurope.
We're certified compostable,we're certified organic, our
tampons have got certifiedorganic, our wipes are certified
organic.
We're doing the right thing fornature and for transparency.
But there is, you know, there'sother stuff out there, that is,
(22:23):
you know.
I think this is a cool marketto be in.
Let's do a bit um and that'syou know.
That's.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
The ongoing challenge is making sure that we keep the
category clean and pure yes, soone I want to commend you
because as as a so I I'm abusiness coach and a client
attraction coach, so like my jamis marketing um and and helping
women who want to leadmovements.
You know very similar to whatyou're doing.
(22:46):
And so I just got to stop for asecond for all the listeners,
because think about how manywomen are out there who have a
vision and, like you were saying, well, nobody's doing it.
So I guess I got to do it.
Don't ever do it or like tooscared to do it, because it's so
easy to not begin if you can'tsee it in, like your physical 3d
yet.
(23:07):
And what I've really grown tolove and I think, believe fully
and just I'm super committed to,is the belief that it's not
about you'll like you know thatsaying, well, I'll believe it
when I see it.
Like you took this idea andthis passion from your heart,
(23:28):
like you knew what was right,you knew what needed to be done.
And it's not like 89.
I was born in 89.
That's what I was trying to sayearlier.
Susie, you've been doing thisfor a minute.
Like that is such a beautifulcommitment into.
Like the integrity is there.
You're still doing the rightthing.
I'm just oh, thank you, thankyou, thank you, thank you.
Oh gosh, you're amazing.
(23:51):
And then the second thing,because I just know so many
women are out there like on thefence or just they don't, they
don't go after the wholeenchilada because it's just them
.
I'm sitting in my closet rightnow, okay, but like, thank you,
but the vision, like my vision,is so big I know that this
podcast, so I like I won't stopuntil it's big, until it makes a
(24:14):
big impact, like I know it'smaking an impact.
And it's okay that it's just mein my closet at first it was me
on my bed.
So we move, we're leveling up,okay you know you see my picture
behind.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Can you see the picture on the wall?
I can.
Who is it?
My mother and my father.
And that was taken in about inthe 1950s, probably mid to 1950s
, and my my mother started as aseamstress.
My father built, you know yousee, these pictures of guys on
top of steel, like the EmpireState Building.
(24:46):
My dad did that.
That's terrifying, that'sterrifying.
So you know I came from, youknow, quite a poor working class
family in the Midlands.
And you know, over the time mymom trained to become a nurse,
my dad, if he didn't have a job,busked on that accordion.
He would go in the streets andbusk to make make sure there's
(25:07):
food on the table.
We only ever cook, you know,raw.
My mother cooked from raw vegand meat or what I mean.
I'm vegetarian but my brothergot fat on me but, um, yeah,
just to give him the meat ratherthan suffer the.
The swings and arrows of mymother's eye are being cooked.
But the education because of,you know, my access to education
(25:28):
, I was able to move, you know,I guess, move myself out and up,
never away, because these aremy roots.
I'm never ashamed of my roots.
These are my roots.
This is what you know, this isthe soil that I came out of and
I remember those roots.
So when you have anunderstanding of why you're
doing something, where you'vecome from and how far you've
(25:48):
come in each step that you do it, it reinforces that, that sense
of I can't even think of a wordfor it there's so many words in
the English language andthere's thousands in other
languages I've never been ableto come to but it's that sense
of, of, of ha, I feel right.
And that's that's where, whenyou have an idea and you, you
(26:09):
get yourself, you know, preparedfor it.
You plan, you, you do yourresearch and make sure you've
got the right finances.
You're not going to put yourfamily at risk with taking risks
that you can't.
You can't, you know, pay forthat you.
It is that next step and and Inever have it said that because
you come from somewhere that'snot expected to be a place that
you should be doing this things.
(26:30):
You know that that impostersyndrome thing that many of us
suffer from, and especiallyamongst women, is that never
take that as a sort of you know,a stop sign.
Just you're, you're achievingso much each day when you stride
through that.
When you say no, no, goodbye tothat, don't tell me I can't do
something.
This stuff needs to be done andI have this idea and I'm going
to go with it.
And I think women are wellprepared for that.
(26:54):
They have rational brains, youknow.
They can do their own internalrisk assessments with that, you
know right.
But I always say write it down.
But we have that as women and uhand and really that that, that
sort of that missing thing issometimes that we expect people
to say to us well, you're doingright, you're doing okay, but
really we know when we're doingright and when we're doing okay.
(27:17):
So it's it's.
We accept that we have thispower.
Um, and it's only ourselvesthat stop us from achieving what
we want to achieve.
I mean, I'd say I come from avery poor working class
background and I was able tosocially climb because of
opportunity through education,opportunity through the jobs I
(27:38):
did in the past, my business.
But I also never forget that youknow we we are part of one
percent for the planet.
So one percent of our turnovergoes back into environmental and
social projects.
So we also know there's no goodmaking, there's no for me
personally I'm not sayingeveryone should do this, but
there's no good making money ifit's not doing some good.
(28:00):
And for me, I feel that what,as a business, what we're doing
is good.
We're doing good by producing abetter product for women in the
environment, but also a largeproportion of the profits is
going back to other goodprojects that allow other people
to achieve good and change.
So it's, you know, it's a partwhere women are part of a of a
(28:22):
an ingenious economy, because wehave this personality also
within us to care and nurture.
So by being successful, we'realso helping others to be
successful.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I love that so much.
I love that so much.
What I'm taking away from thatis, regardless of where you come
from, if you get curious andyou just I think that's the big
thing is like leading withcuriosity and everything and how
you feel and where you likequestion, why am I the way I am?
(28:56):
Oh, let's just get curiousabout it and kind of like remove
the judgment and shame.
Right, I love that you tookadvantage of the education and
it's I try to tell people thisespecially.
I mean I say I try to.
I've quit trying.
Like you can make these gentlesuggestions like oh, this is a
great book.
Or you know, I listened to thispodcast.
(29:16):
But like people are going tofind it and receive it when
they're ready for that, for thechange.
But I like I tell my kids and Itell my clients, like if you
just get curious and you just Idon't know open a book or find a
podcast or just somebody youresonate with, you'll get
curious about more and then,before you know it, like your
brain is just evolving and it'sexpanding and you start to like
(29:38):
increase your self-worth, youstart to hang out with different
people and but yeah, Iresonated with that.
I know that it's a little bitdifferent, but um, I think I
learned all sorts of things Imean.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean I've been fortunate that I was.
I was given the opportunity,you know, and I was.
You know I was blessed, I guess, with a with an inquisitive
brain, and I was able to.
You know I loved, blessed, Iguess, with an inquisitive brain
, and I was able to.
You know I loved learning, Iloved being at school.
I mean, some of the stuff theywere teaching me was I might
have some disagreements aboutsome facts in history.
That's part of the learningprocess, isn't it To learn how
(30:12):
to rationalize about informationthat you're given.
But there are also situations,you know, in nature, you know,
in scenarios with other people,where you are learning
incredible things.
Itpaid work in the volunteersector.
It'd be billions, billions.
That could be someone who'slooking as a carer, someone's
(30:50):
looking after a friend, a parent, a relative of some kind,
someone who's helping out at aschool with you know kids read,
or you know helping in garden.
That the whole volunteer sectoris is worth a fortune and all
that people are are given istheir time and their experience
and their knowledge, and itdoesn't have to be knowledge
(31:11):
learned from a book.
It can be, you know,experiences that you can share
and and and and pass on a skillthat you can share, and pass on
a skill that you know you'velearned over a long time.
It's easy to be, you know, as aneducation person.
You know someone who also has apostgrad in education.
It's easy to fall under thespell that everything that's
good comes from a book,everything.
(31:32):
There may be some great thingsthat come from books, but we
mustn't also dispel the factthat there's great things that
come from having experience in,around and around things, going
out and helping.
You know, if you're, if you're,into nature, you can join the
conservation corps or similarand going to help lay hedges or
learn how to restorativeagriculture by going out in a
(31:53):
community garden.
Um, you can learn about caringfor people by just assisting,
you know, with people who neededhelp and care.
So it's, there is personalexperiences.
That is also a great educator,um, and that that that's, you
know, often not considered as aas a wealthy thing to to own
(32:14):
yeah, I hadn't.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I mean, I guess I have thought about the.
So for me it was like you know,I loved getting around people
who were doing what I wanted todo, so like intern or like do
some free projects and stufflike that, or spending time with
older people was something Ireally enjoyed doing.
But coming so being raised inthe South like bible belt south,
(32:40):
we were we were raised.
we were raised to be very um islike as servants, I guess you
know serving the lord andwhatnot, um, but anyhow.
So I love that you point thatout, because a lot of people do
forget about, like the volunteerwork and just putting yourself
out there and then like whatcomes to those connections.
(33:02):
One it's you're doing somethinggreat, but I guess a whole new
environment and you learn somuch and I didn't even think I
don't know.
Thank you for saying all that.
I'm just going to be quiet.
That was really great.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I'll just leave it where it is it makes you feel
good too, because you know doingthings for others makes you
feel good.
It makes you feel, you know,fulfilled, that you're doing
something worthwhile.
And I guess you know 35 yearsof doing it.
You know why are you stilldoing it?
Because I still feel that I'mdoing something worthwhile,
(33:34):
because there's so manychallenges to overcome.
You know I can help people andyou know there's some you know
other companies or other womenthat are a startup in business,
not even related to it.
Or given a loan to someone youknow through the loan exchange
systems or their organizationsin, say, in Africa, where you
can have a loan organization,you can give a woman you know
$45, and she'll turn that into abusiness and then pay back and
their kids are educated.
(33:55):
There's all sorts of ways thatyou can, you can make.
You know your small, small potsof money or small amounts of
skill pay back in a big way.
Um, and that's really.
Apart from nature care being aproduct, um, it is a concept
that came from my heart.
You know it came from, you knoweverything about nature care,
(34:16):
that is, nature care is me, um,which is might sound a bit weird
or maybe a bit precocious, butit it embodies all the things
that are important and and to meand I care about and I feel um
has integrity, um, so I hopethat people, when you know if
they're buying nature care orthey're seeing nature care and
(34:37):
they know that that they aresharing in that and and and the
payback to through one percentfor the planet and there are
other organizations outside ofone percent the planet that we,
you know, give financial supportto and and aid that you, you
are, you know, I guess I'msaying is that it's the power of
the purse.
Um give is is how you decidewhere your own hearts and
(35:01):
support is going and learningabout products and services and
companies and where that moneythat you're handing over what is
supporting is quite animportant consideration, and so
it's the same when you'resetting up a business or a
service is to understand thatthat people need to feel that
(35:22):
when they give you their money,they're supporting something
that they can hold their hand upto say I'm really proud.
All think we have to make bigstatements and make big things.
You know to, you don't need toget on a, you don't need to get
(35:44):
on a Greenpeace ship and sail tothe Arctic to save a whale,
which is pretty fabulous to dothat.
But you can, you know you cansupport.
You can support the notion thatwe don't need so much plastic
because it's polluting the ocean.
You know, just for us, like allof nature, care pads are
compostable and our pant linersare.
They're certified compostableand it went.
(36:07):
We went through a lot ofscience and testing with an
external agency to prove that.
But we know that you know, in ayear, for the amount of
products that we sold, that in awhole year of just you know of,
if you were just buying naturecare products and using nature
care products, you preventedwhat is effectively plastic the
(36:27):
size of a blue whale going in toour marine environments yes,
out.
By making that choice, you'rebasically helping to keep that
environment that blue whaleneeds to live in pristine.
You can make a difference byjust thinking about the choices
that you make, and there's somany conscious choices across
all the consumer market servicesthat you can make.
(36:49):
It just takes that little bitof time to sit down and do your
little bit of research.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
It's okay.
This is wrapping up and tyingtogether beautifully, because I
want to talk about, like, firstoff, your products, being in
America.
That's where I'm going to start.
You already know, probably,that America's regulations, like
all the things you know,organic, but there's so much out
(37:22):
there.
There's so much out there thatit's hard to know.
Like you were saying earlier, Ihave to time think that I'm
buying a great product, likeit's saying organic or like
da-da-da-da, but if I reallystop and look, I don't really
know.
I feel like I'm buying themarketing.
Look, I don't really know.
I feel like I'm buying themarketing.
So, one having a young woman whoI want to make sure that her
(37:45):
hormones are okay, that she'sable to, if she wants to have
babies, be able to reproduce.
I want her to be good, I wanther to be as natural and as
feeling herself as possible,right Versus.
I was put on birth control at avery young age.
I was, I've been using tamponsand all these things and my
(38:07):
hormones are all kinds of fuckedup, like I'm 35 just now
getting hold of my hormones.
So what, like your productssound great.
Are they available in america?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
oh yeah, we've been there since 19,.
Well, we've been.
Our non-applicated tampons andall of our pads have been there
since 1991.
And our applicator tamponssince 1992.
So, as you said, regulationtampons are registered, are
regulated medical devices?
Well, actually, pads are.
They're a lower class.
You, you know, you have to beregistered.
(38:39):
Um, we also have a um, we're aquality.
Our quality system has to, hasto be such that it meets the
regulations.
So we're, you know, I can giveyou all sorts of isos, but so
we're a medical device regulatedcompany manufacturer.
So, yes, all the regulationsare met, but the regulations do
not.
You know the fda or health.
(39:00):
They never, they don't do theirown individual research.
Know that number one.
They're a regulatory body andthey rely on the industry to
inform them, to provide.
You know their own, you knowcurated research as to what's
safe and effective.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Are you saying I did not know that?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
No, they don't do their own research.
They're never using publicmoney, using your money, to do
that.
Um and so so know that you know, and there's, there is an
organization that you know isthere to, obviously the fda, and
like health counter, are thereto protect there to protect you.
They're not there to to do to dotheir own research.
(39:38):
If you might pass your mindback.
Um, there was a lot ofpublicity recently uh, back in
back into last year about heavymetals in tampons.
We do precautionary tests.
We don't use any processes orraw materials where there would
ever be heavy metals in ourproducts, but we still do
precautionary testing becauseevery year, because where we we
take the precautionary route,what if you don't look?
(39:58):
You don't look, you don't find,if you don't aim to look, how
would you ever know?
And we put our results on ourwebsite.
But it was quite clear thatthere were many I think it was
on a Barclay their research.
That's another fact for you.
Barclay Castle is not too faraway from me.
But the fact that there isheavy metals in the process that
(40:20):
is then left in the product isa concern, because some of those
heavy metals that were detectedin many products that were also
certified as organic.
When you're looking at organictampons, there's two things to
know.
One, there is the growing ofcotton to an organic standard,
which is a sort of like forAmerica it would be USDA, for
(40:41):
Europe it would be to theEuropean regulations.
If you were in Turkey, it wouldbe to the Turkish government
regulations and they're allgoverned by an overarching
organization called IFO to makesure that those agricultural
standards for organics meet thesame criterion standards.
But then it's processing.
So how is that productprocessed?
So if you're processing thecotton to no known standard, how
(41:04):
do you know that cotton ends upin your product comes from an
organic farm?
So the global organic textilestandards is that processing.
It's the only standard that isapproved by the USDA.
So nature care tampons arecertified to the global organic
textile standards.
So that's from farm to end ofprocessing.
(41:25):
So you know, for tampons, lookfor the global organic textile
standard.
It's a little green logo butit'll say GOTS on it and there's
a whole load of standards inthere, not only just for
production and processing.
There's all sorts of thingsthat are not permitted and are
tested, independently tested for, but it also there's also a
component of environmental andsocial care in there.
(41:47):
So they make sure that thepeople who are working in these
you know if they're producingcotton or dyeing stuff or
processing they're not beingexploited.
So if you're buying somethingChina, unless it's a global
organic textile standardcertified product, you're
probably not going to know a lotabout what those standards are.
So that's number one For ourpads.
(42:09):
We use certified organic cotton.
We use FSC and PEFC, which is aprocess for how wood is grown,
is grown.
Our forest is managedecologically, is processed
without chlorine of anydescription.
We use um.
We use home compost certifiedbiofilms as a barrier.
That's made from plant startbut the whole product is then
(42:32):
certified compostable so you canput it in industrial composting
.
You could actually put in adomestic compost bin but it
would take you a bit longer thanit would in industrial
composting.
So looking for certificationsoutside of a government
regulation usually gives youmore than the state's giving you
.
The state systems is basicallythe minimum.
(42:53):
So the fact that you know toxicshock syndrome went on unchecked
for so long was an argumentover what causes it.
Is it the absorbency?
Is it the fiber type?
Who decides?
Is it the industry?
Generally, the research comesfrom the industry.
The only independent researchthat's been done conducted into
toxic shock syndrome and thetypes of fibers used by you new
(43:15):
york university med school backin the mid 90s, and nature care
products were the only productsin that research that they could
not generate the toxin thatcreates toxic shock syndrome.
So there's sort of safety issuesaround a product, there's
performance and there's qualityAt the end of life.
You want to know that when youfinish with the product it's not
(43:36):
going to end up in a landfillor it's going to get washed down
the rivers and out to sea or ifyou, you know, if you burn it,
you're shoving a load of dioxinsand toxins up your chimney
stack.
So there is, there is a lot ofthings to consider, but there
are very few organizations thatum within a state system that
would would give you that itcomes from external agencies.
(43:58):
Um, the environmentalprotection agency, you know, is
governed by.
You know this.
Obviously that can changedepending on the politics of the
of the time, but for me, um I,because I've been in an american
market for a long, long time, II hear that people will put
good stead by Europeanregulations because we have
(44:20):
European cosmetic regulations,we have safety regulations for
production of end products.
So do your research, but don'trely on the state as a stamp of
what is good.
Look for the global organictextile standard.
Look for the global organictextile standard.
Look for, you know, anindependent accreditation that
(44:42):
that is, is valued across,across markets and in that way,
you, you, you can be sure thatyou are avoiding the kind of
processes, pesticides, heavymetals, pfos you know we'll.
Pfos are, like you know, thelatest, the latest monster, the
(45:04):
latest Frankenstein that youknow those of us who are
environmentalists have knownabout.
This has come in for decades.
But if so, if you wear, if youchoose to buy you know period
underwear, you need to look atwhat they're made from, because
you know pfos is is part of thematerial, the processing that
makes them waterproof what isthat saying?
Speaker 2 (45:26):
what are you saying pfos?
Speaker 1 (45:28):
yeah, they're they're basically, uh, they're
fluorochlorians.
They basically they're they'recalled forever chemicals.
They're, um, they stay in theenvironment in the I mean you're
probably drinking it.
I mean it's so pernicious inthe environment.
In the water, I mean you'reprobably drinking it.
I mean it's so pernicious inthe environment it's almost
impossible to get.
And such now that, um, you knowteflon pans, you know they.
(45:49):
They contain the samefluorocarbons that are absorbed
into your body.
So we're probably all highlypolluted by now.
Because when you come back toregulatory things, when you rely
on an industry to tell yousomething safe based on your own
research, you know what isthere for the regulatory
industry.
Okay, you've told, showed us.
We're not going to go and checkit ourselves because we don't
(46:09):
have the money, we don't havethis, we don't have this, we
don't have the probablytechnicians to do that.
We'll, you know, we'll look atthe safety and effectiveness.
We'll review it over Now.
Now these things have been inthe environment for so long, the
agencies like the FDA andHealth Canada and the European
Union are looking at the safetyof these ingredients and saying,
(46:30):
sorry, we're going to ban thesefluorocarbons because they're,
they're everywhere and they'recreating you know, they're
creating life-changing,life-ending conditions.
So where do you?
I mean it's the hodgepodge,because, yeah, I've known that
(46:51):
the regulatory authorities,wherever they are in the world,
are not looking after consumers.
Independent organizations thatare having the ethos of looking
to protect nature and to protecthealth are the organisations
that are most likely to belooking at the impact of these
products.
So, made Safe EWG in someinstances.
(47:12):
You know the Women's Voices forthe Earth, although you know,
in some places there have beenproducts that have been raised
as being wonderful that turn outto be, you know, contain heavy
metals or contain fluorochloricchlorine.
So it's look for the validityof the certifications that
people have got.
Are they just a made up thing?
(47:34):
That, you know, is greenwashing.
Greenwashing is the term.
You know it's greenwashing.
Greenwashing is the term or isit?
Is it really something that'sindependent and has real science
behind it?
Because we shouldn't take thesethings.
We shouldn't take these thingslightly, because we're lathering
stuff on our bodies every dayand you know, the skin is a
great organ for absorbing intothe body, I mean that's, and we
(47:59):
women use so many products, sowe're a great we're a great.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
We're a great body of consumers.
Oh, yeah, they.
I mean just consumerism ingeneral, is it really blows my
mind how addicted we are ashumans to products and needing
something so instant.
So I have a.
I have a couple of questionsbefore we close it out.
And that is so.
Look for that, look for theGOTS certificate and that's
(48:30):
green.
It'll be green and I'll lookfor a picture and show everybody
.
But so we're looking for that.
What are we like trying to stayaway from?
I'm seeing like scented tampons, like all these weird I don't
know.
It feels unnatural in a sense.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, to our tampons.
You know some tampons arelabeled as organic.
That also, if they're, ifthey're all, if they're
certified to the organic to um,um, it's the ocs organic content
standard you can.
You don't have to be 100organic to be to have the ocs.
You can have what.
You can have a syntheticoverwrap, you can have a
synthetic string.
(49:08):
That's why I say look for gotsfor a tampon.
Okay, in pads, um, again, youknow they may make.
They may contain uh, regularplastic, petroleum-based plastic
.
For me personally and I standwith the Federal Trade
Commission on this the use ofthe term bamboo as a natural is
a fallacy.
Bamboo as a material is viscose.
(49:31):
There is no definition forbamboo as an independent fibre
fabric.
It's actually viscose.
And the FTC.
Just last I think it was lastyear or the year before
independent fiber fabric, it's,it's actually viscose and the
and what?
And the ftc, these?
Um, just last I think it waslast year, the year before um
find a couple of companies um,uh, that uh, millions of dollars
for making claims about bambooas being natural.
(49:53):
You know better for theenvironment.
It's a.
It's a product that is derivedfrom bamboo that uses horrendous
chemicals to process it.
So, whilst it might be nice togrow bamboo in an environment,
as long as it doesn't become asort of you know a crop that is
now quite valuable and thereforeit's grown less naturally.
The actual process of gettingfrom bamboo to make a fiber is
(50:16):
highly toxic.
So you can go look at the FTCruling on the term of bamboo.
They can't call it bamboozlingand actually you can be
prosecuted for making naturalclaims for bamboo.
So I would say that you knowbamboo is, you know bamboozling
is the ultimate in greenwashingand that it's a natural material
.
So you know, look for organiccotton, natural material.
(50:44):
So you know, look for organiccotton.
And you know the resources forthe product have come from
managed, sustainable resourcesand you can see the track, the
trailing for it in theircertification of where it's come
from.
So washables, reusables, arefine as long as you, you know,
make sure that those washablesdon't contain materials that
also have um, fluorocarbons inthem and and and the instruction
(51:05):
to wash them three times beforeyou use it.
Please think of the environmentif you need to wash those
products three times before youuse them for your own safety.
Those, those fluorocarbons,those fluoroclorians, are being
washed into our water system toremain there forever.
They shouldn't be there in thefirst place.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
When you say washables, are you talking about
, like the inserts or the littlecups?
I don't understand.
You can get period underwear.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
You can get pads that are washable.
Look for an organic, washableproduct and and one that you
know has validation.
That it that it doesn't containPFAs, because there have been
cases that the Women's Voicesfor the Earth called out where
products were claiming that theywere they didn't contain PFAs
and when tested they did,because they're buying them from
(51:53):
.
Many of these products comefrom China.
So you know, chinese people areamazing, creative, productive
people, but you can't alwaystrust that the state.
You know the validations thatcome are actually valid, and we
know, you know from the workthat's been done that you know
(52:15):
bamboo is not a crediblematerial, um, and you can't call
it natural.
So, uh, but yes, you can.
You know menstrual cups, um,but again, you know, don't treat
them, as you've still got to beconscious that there is still
risk for toxic shock syndromeusing a menstrual cup, um, so
(52:37):
you just need to be, you know,not let your guards down, but
it's what really suits you, andyou can have a whole mix of them
if you're traveling and youdon't, you know you, I mean for
nature care with compostable.
You can bury them in the ground, um, bury them deep around,
they'll compost.
But if you want to take, um youknow a washable or a reusable,
make sure the place that you'regoing to that the water is
potable, that it's clean water,that you can wash them in, don't
(52:59):
you know?
If it's not clean water, youdon't want to be, you know in.
So there are all sorts ofconsiderations that you have to
think about.
It's time and place and purpose, um, but, yep, you know, with
this there is I mean we, we areavailable across america in
natural product stores wholefoods, whatever and we're also
available online.
(53:19):
Now we've now got an e-commercesite, um, so you can go shop at
naturecarecom amazon.
We're on amazon too.
Um, I mean, there's there's noreason why we're not accessible.
Um, but I think you really haveto look at you what your own
personal choices and what yourneeds are.
Um, I mean, we have dry andlight inco products as well,
(53:40):
which is for, you know, sneezymoments, as we call it um, I'm
actually people think aboutfolks who have linear light
stress incontinence as being oldpeople, but it actually is the
highest instance between womenof 18 and 25 um, especially for
repeated cystitis, or.
I mean, you know there's thiskind of thing um that you know
(54:03):
we have sneezy moment pads too.
So there is.
You know, there's a whole loadof things that came out of my
journey, um, that tried toaddress.
There's so much plastic inthese products.
I've got to get these productsand design them without the
plastics and without thechemicals, and then I suppose
for me, our final part, in short, is that in this time times
(54:26):
that we're in at the moment, youknow, the biggest resource that
we have is our own kindness,kindness to others, and we
probably found that during Covidthat all we could give was
kindness and support to eachother.
So for the past couple of yearswe've been running our Be Kind
project and you can go to ourwebsite at naturecarecom and you
(54:46):
sign up, and it's not, you know, there's no, it's just a way of
reminding you that each day youcan do something to be kind to
yourself and also, if you feelso inclined, to be kind to
someone else, and that might be,you know, a friend, someone you
don't know, or just somethingin the environment.
So nature care is a product.
It is not just a product, it isas I said, it's it's my whole
(55:10):
life, out there in a package ofseveral packages.
But the giving back is hisintention is to make, make our
world and ourselves better forit, because the one thing that
distinguishes us from anythingelse is that we bleed every
month, and when we stop bleedingevery month, we think about how
(55:34):
we look after our sisters, whoneed our help, because we're
then, you know, probably olderand maybe grandmothers and
looking after the children.
So it's a part of our, of whatis special about us and unique
about us, and, um, as you have,you rightly pulled out that we
need to take care of our health,because there's not really any
other organizations out therewho care to take care of our
(55:56):
health for us.
They're just, it's just amarginal nod to it rather than a
yeah, an in-depth view.
Speaker 2 (56:04):
So oh yes, I again back to the whole america thing.
We gotta get.
We gotta get it together, man,because I I feel like we're just
when I say we just the thewhole system is in the business
of just keeping people sick,treating us like numbers, and
I'm just so.
I'm fucking over it, susie, I'mover it it is that you're
(56:27):
looking after yourself.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
And I think I mean I, probably my parents, you know,
um, they, they didn't have thebenefit.
And I, we know Britain's got anational health service and
you've got, you've got, you know, your care system.
That's on its teachers.
But but you know, there'snothing.
We always used to look toamerica that that you know.
Let's look at americans.
They're so well, maybe this isnot a good point to say, but we
(56:50):
used to look to america and say,look how you know americans,
you know, especially, especiallythis time where they know it's
expensive to look after poorhealth, that they have this
mindset of looking after theirhealth so they don't have to
face the bills of poor health.
Um, and that seemed to us to bea very american thing, and you
know it takes two years for whathappens in america to filter
(57:13):
over to to britain as a concept.
So you know, in the 80s we hadall this like, yeah, we're all
going to take care of our healthand we're all going to be
healthy, but we, we have thebenefit, we have.
Well, we say for the benefit ofa free health service.
So we do pay, you know, we paya national insurance, but but
it's free at the point of access, of need.
But there is also that thatwhen you, when you and I, and I
(57:36):
think it's the most thing one ofthe things that makes us
British, to be honest and butit's in trouble because it's not
.
You know it's so much.
There's so much ill health.
You know it's so much.
There's so much ill health.
There's so much unhealthypeople with obesity and diabetes
and alcohol abuse.
You know effects of drugs.
You know people who smashthemselves up driving because
they're driving crazy.
(57:56):
That puts pressure on thathealth service.
If we can step back and saylet's just take care of
ourselves a bit better so thatwe don't need this emergency
system, but so much.
But we know that at time ofpoint now, I had breast cancer
in 2019.
So I, you know, I'm thankfulthat I, you know there was a
(58:18):
national health service there totake care of me.
I know my surgery, myradiotherapy, um, that that's,
and I didn't have to worrywhether it was going to bankrupt
me.
Not just for America, but thereare other countries around the
world where you know there is noability to seek health care
because there is no money for itand that makes your life, you
(58:41):
know, troublesome.
It makes your decisionsdifficult.
So looking after your health asmuch as you can, if you have
resource to do that, makes themost sense to me.
Um, you know that's not alwayseasy if you don't have access to
good food, you know you don'thave access to good water, or
you have a, you know, a job thatworks you 12, 15 hours a day.
(59:01):
It's difficult, but that'swhere kindness comes in.
Then we can see we see peoplearound us like that.
Let's just help them out.
Let a day.
It's difficult, but that'swhere kindness comes in.
Then we can see we see peoplearound us like that.
Let's just help them out.
Let's, even if it's just, youknow, baking a pie and taking it
around to them, or you know,looking after their kids for an
hour so they can have a sleep,or this is part of you know, we
have to say that we have to takecare of ourselves, but we all
(59:24):
need to take care of community.
We need community becausethat's what we, as humans,
evolved to be.
Um, so yeah, in my littlenature care way, it's a
community of staff of 35 yearsthat we've been trying to do
something good and be kind and,you know, change the way that we
look at, how we take things outof nature and then put it back
(59:47):
in.
But we can do this every day.
We can do this in our everydaylife.
Kindness doesn't cost anything,does it?
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Sure, doesn't.
I like to say it is free 99.
Not 399, free 99, y'all so Free99.
Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
But I know well, you know, on your point of.
You know we all know what's.
You know this is difficult.
When there's a political changeand we feel like there's not.
You know it might not suit usor it might not, it might feel
frightening or it might feel,you know, might feel some people
may feel joy, but it's it's.
It's a very short time, youknow time I mean time moves on.
(01:00:23):
I mean I've just, just as in abusiness in Britain, you know,
in the time that I've been inbusiness, we've been through
four recessions and we came outthe other side of it.
You know we came through 2008when there was a crash.
You know resilience we talkedabout teaching resilience.
It's something that we all needto learn, because and and and
(01:00:45):
hope that things do change.
But what makes things change isour own perspective and the
things that we do to help thatchange come along.
Um, and you know, tomorrow'sanother day.
I learned that through my,through my breast cancer and
radiotherapy.
That, you know, today is achallenge, uh and but, but each
day it's, we're winning, we'regetting through it and I'll meet
(01:01:08):
whatever comes next and that's,that's a good.
I feel that's my, that's myguiding star.
We'll deal with this today andwe'll plan for tomorrow.
Um, but I won't be deterred bywhat comes tomorrow, I'll just
plan a different way the nextday.
Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Oh, remember that in business too oh uh, full-bodied
chills like that was.
That was so good, and I want toclose it out with just saying
that you said something earlierwhenever I asked you about your
you know your opinion ontechnology and business
perspective, parentalperspective, just, I mean human
perspective right, I love howyou talked about your sons being
(01:01:48):
able to use a computer.
We called that the familycomputer.
It took like 20 minutes to getthat bad boy going.
But I just hope that whoever'slistening today and I'm going to
ask you because I'm supercurious, you've got so much
wisdom how old you are oh, wow,I was 72 on December, the 16th
(01:02:16):
just gone.
Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Okay you look.
But I just want to tell you I Ihad some blood tests on because
I had pneumonia earlier in theyear, my mother, my mother had
pneumonia, I got pneumonia atall these blood tests.
And because I had pneumoniaearlier in the year, my mother
had pneumonia, I got pneumonia.
I had all these blood tests andcame up with this kind of
genetic condition that I have istwo out of three of
anticoagulants they can eitherbe called haemophilia or clots
and my consultant came back andsaid oh, we need aggressive
(01:02:41):
cardiovascular management,cardiovascular management.
So, being a you know, person ofscience, I thought I don't even
know what my status quo is,because I've been, I've been,
I've been involved in sport allmy life.
You know whether it's any, allkinds of sport, and I gave up
squash just before I playedpremier squash, just before I
had my breast cancer in 2019.
(01:03:01):
So I need to know my status quo.
So this last weekend I hoiked upto the north of England to a
place called Tomorrow's Wellnessand it's kind of.
You have cardiologists,consultant cardiologists and you
, basically, I, basically, me,basically, I spent two hours of
having my ultrasound on all ofmy arteries.
(01:03:21):
I had ECGs, I had body massvisceral fat, cardiovascular
facility all this.
My arteries are perfect.
My, my, my visceral fat isperfect.
My cardiovascular capabilitieswere off the scale of excellent
(01:03:43):
and whilst I was on the bikecycling through the hills of
Northumberland, on the screen tothe killers, um, all your vital
signs are on the wall and thecardiology says I have the
cardiovascular system of a 35year old.
Get the fuck out Susie honestlyso, because I've played sport
(01:04:04):
all my life.
I've been a vegetarian since Iwas 11, you know, um, the one
thing that I do have ishypertension.
So when they take your bloodpressure, you really need to see
.
I got white coat syndrome ifyou, you know, if you take my
blood pressure, it goes throughthe roof.
So you know, and and the thefeedback that cardiologists gave
to me was that one, I know whatmy internal systems.
(01:04:26):
They're okay.
I don't need to worry abouthaving these two.
You know genetic things, thethings going off in my blood,
that what I put in the bank allmy life good, healthy eating,
exercising, moderate you knowthis.
I don't I drink, I don't drink,I don't smoke will drink, you
know, a glass of wine now again,but I, you know, I feel like,
(01:04:48):
ok, I know where I am at now.
I've got the internal system ofa 35 year old.
I must go and do some weighttraining to maintain my weight,
but I was off the scale.
I was off the scale ofexcellent by 25 percent.
So that's given that I haven'tdone a lot of cardiovascular
(01:05:09):
exercise.
Last year, having had pneumonia,I was pretty proud of that.
So I'm not afraid of being 72people say to me, we don't think
of you being 72.
Um, I feel you know, I feelthat one.
You have to keep healthy tokeep going.
You have to keep healthy foryour kids and I've got
grandchildren as well, young,young, very young grandchildren.
But I feel good that, um, I,I've kind of taken the natural
(01:05:33):
route, subconsciously, that'sgiven me that kind of money in
the bank to be able to go outand do whatever I want to want
and not worry about whether I'mgoing to have a heart attack or
a stroke or you know whatever,because it's the same in
everything you do, what you putin the bank at the early start.
But it's never too late.
(01:05:54):
It's never too late to makethings better.
And and I was prepared for that, you know, given this genetic
condition, that whatever I needto do to stop anything happening
, I'm prepared to do it becausewe women are strong.
I think we're strong, I thinkwe're determined, we know we're
carers and we carry the weightof stuff.
We carry the weight ofresistance, we carry the weight
(01:06:14):
of support and we need to behealthy and mindful that a lot
of stuff relies on us and I'mvery conscious this is quite a
lot of stuff that relies on meand I'm glad that I've got the
internal system of a 35 year old, keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
That's incredible, because I'm 35 and I bet my
internal system is that of an 80year old, Never feel ready to
change Well that's what I wastrying to get at.
It was like I wouldn't haveguessed how old you are.
Never would have guessed it.
Not that it's.
I wouldn't have guessed how oldyou are.
Never would have guessed it.
Not that it's.
I don't even consider that old,to be honest, like I.
That's what trips me up is whenpeople get offended about.
(01:06:51):
Oh, you asked my age.
I'm like you're just asking howmany years of wisdom I have.
Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Is what I feel like you always get right everything
you will learn.
You learn your wisdom frommeeting other people who pass on
that wisdom but you're not.
Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
That's, that's, I think that was the grand scheme.
I was trying to say is likeyeah you're not.
Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
You're never too old like you're out you're killing
it, it's fine.
It's fine, yeah, and you neverknow how long you got.
I mean, I think I'm having thebreast cancer.
It's just like I'm always lucky.
I was lucky in the diagnosisand I have to take oestrogen
blockers, which also means, likeyou know, the protection that
oestrogen gives you for yourcardiovascular system was also a
(01:07:31):
worry for me.
So I've been taking oestrogenblockers, you know, medicated,
for five years.
How is this impacted?
Well, actually, you're allright.
Okay, I must have good genes,apart from those other two.
Thanks, mom.
Dad must be all that dirt.
I think it must be all the dirtand poverty that we were all I
(01:07:52):
know there was never any dirt.
My mom was like, you know,super, oh, crikey, no, but yeah,
good genes.
You, you can't help your genes,yeah it is well.
Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
It was just.
I just loved how you ended it.
You're like thanks, you're socute.
Oh, this has been so good.
Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
So thank you and lovely to to talk to you as well
and meet you and and I loveyour cupboard.
I mean my cup is a bit posh nowbecause my son's played the
piano stick.
I don't play the piano.
I used to have an accordion butit's just there for show Cause.
When they come around they'llplay it, but I can't.
I might play a few chords nowand again, pretend I know how to
(01:08:35):
play.
Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
It looks really beautiful behind you.
Oh well, thank you so muchagain.
I hope that whoever's listeninguses this, as you were saying,
as a tool to advance themselves,to expand their minds and to, I
guess, transcend.
You just are such a beautifulstory of transcendence and I
(01:08:59):
thank you so much for sharingyour time, your wisdom, your
heart.
Oh, you're incredible and Ijust feel so honored to have had
you on my show.
So, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
You're welcome, and you're always welcome, to the
soulful place that is Bristol.
Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Girl don't, even, don't joke, I will come see you.
No, come, come find me.
She said come find me.
Okay, yeah, come find me, notbad Look she said come find me.
Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Okay, don't try me, not bad, look, you'll get an
email when I'm feeling squirrely.
Okay, you know how good we areat pushing statues into water.
Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
I can't deal with you .
I can't deal with you.
Oh my god, no, I bristol's onthe list now you, yeah,
definitely you've done messed up.
I just mean you're so cool that, like I have to come meet you.
You're definitely you've donemessed up.
I just mean you're so cool that, like I have to come meet you.
Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
You're amazing, you've messed up you might find
me back on the squash court evenonce I've got these manky
wrists sorted out.
I know too much gardening okay,what is squash.
What is squash?
What well?
You play racquetball, which isokay, um, and I think paddle
balls, paddle balls, it squasheslike the smaller ball and the
smaller head of racket and youbeat the living shit out of the
(01:10:09):
ball against the front wall,until you.
It's a very anaerobic activity.
Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
Oh, we just call it wall ball.
I think you call it wall ball,that's what I call it.
Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
That's what I call it .
Yeah, yeah, we taught our kids.
My husband played squash too.
Both our sons played squashfrom a very early age.
They basically you teach yourkids.
This is, this is my wisdom as amother you teach your kids to do
everything that you want to doas an adult, so you can take
them with you and you teach them.
You make sure they do the samething.
(01:10:42):
So you're not going in off.
No, you're not doing swimming.
If you're going to do football,you both have to do swimming.
You can both do football.
So we taught them squash, wetaught them tennis, we taught
them skiing um, but they bothplay piano.
That was just for their ownenjoyment.
Um, uh, football, rugby, hockey, so, but the things that you
want to do as an adult, you makesure they're good at it.
(01:11:03):
Come on, we're going skiing.
Okay, now they're all betterthan us.
That's the thing they get to bebetter than you.
And then you, they're always.
That's the thing, that's theachievement.
You know, my husband saidbecause he used to play water
polo at university, so theswimmer.
And the day that our eldest sonbeat him in the pool, he was.
(01:11:27):
So he said james, just beat me.
Well, he was like 17 orsomething.
Well, that's what you want,isn't it?
You don't want to be betterthan your kids forever, but you
want them to be better than youor crestford.
Now both actually both kidsbeat both of us at squash and we
both played premier squash.
So that's hilarious.
Well done, well done yeah, thisguy hurt the ego just a little
(01:11:50):
bit at first, but I'm glad thatthey're the number the hours you
spend watching hockey, fieldhockey or or squash and and
thinking, oh my god, are theygoing to get injured?
And you're moving with everyball.
You're thinking, oh no, don'tlook it's, it's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
Yeah, the older you get like it's all I do risk
assessment of everything I'mlike, analyze and hold on, so I
get that but yeah, yeah now nowI'm getting wall ball squash I
gotta get make sure you wear eyeguards okay, well, okay, I
didn't know that.
(01:12:27):
Now I know, um, but I'm gonnaprep that way I can come kick
your ass whenever I meet you.
Okay, I'll, be well, I'll bewell, I'll be waiting for you
because apparently, I mean youcan probably kick my ass if you
have the internal I haven'tplayed since 2019, um, but I I
my cardiology says so.
Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
He said you just need to go in the gym and do weights
, um, for 80 of your workoutneeds to be weights and 20 can't
.
Don't you need to worry aboutcardiovascular way off scale, um
, but there's nothing wrong withmy muscular weight.
But apparently here's a tipapparently when you get to 75 so
I've got a bit of way to go yetyour body starts to digest your
muscle mass for food sources,which is why you see a bit of
weight to go.
Yet your body starts to digestyour muscle mass, your food
(01:13:06):
source, which is why you see alot of old people of you know
bony, because they basicallydigest their muscle mass.
Unless you keep your musclemass up with weight bearing
exercise.
So, and I hate going in, I hateweight bearing, no, I just
despise being in a gym.
And if there's nothing to winif you're not playing a sport,
what's the point apart fromtraining for that sport?
(01:13:27):
It's, um, yeah, it's so.
I'm gonna have to get myself apersonal trainer to motivate me
to go in the gym, becauseotherwise I'll find other
reasons to get on the bike thatis so hilarious, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
Okay, all right, susan, we gotta go.
Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
I think we'd stay here all day, have a great life.
See you in Bristol.
Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
You think I'm kidding , I'm going, no, no.
Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
I'm telling you come, you come, stay, all five of you
.
Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
We've probably got enough room, oh no, no, I was
thinking maybe like a solo trip.
Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Solo trip.
Yeah, sounds like a lot.
I've got to do a recce.
You might be dangerous.
Out there in the wild west thewild west of england they throw
statues in rivers.
Careful, I've got to go on myown and I'll come back and let
you know oh my god okay, oh okay, great to speak to you thanks
(01:14:25):
for tolerating me.
Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
You know, I can't quit laughing, oh my god.
Okay, have a great day, susie.
Thank you so much.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!