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It would seem fitting perhaps that my first podcast under the new mantle of A Mindful Life should concentrate on myself. After 25 years in the UK police, I suffered a mental breakdown. Even now I feel weak for admitting that. That is my ego talking though. My hope is that my experience in the blue light services will assist others to make sense of their own journey. I retire in 2022 where I will e...

Sam Murray is a former Royal Marine who later worked in the private sector doing surveillance and close protection assignments. Whilst his professional life was varied and exciting, his own wellbeing started to suffer.  Buried grief and other personal traumas started to take their toll on Sam and he turned to alcohol and drugs before trying to his own life. After a spell in hospital and finding hi...

The Pilgrim Bandits Pilgrim Bandits recognises the dangerous and often stressful work carried out by the Policing Family. We understand that PTSD, stress and mental health related issues have increased within the Police and Emergency services.  Officers nationwide are also daily suffering injuries, some life changing. Having worked for many years helping our Armed Forces servicemen and women suffe...

In this episode I talk with  Chief Constable Mike Cunningham, current head of the college of policing.  We discuss the PEQF and direct entry scheme to policing and the controversy it has caused with many front line officers.  We also discuss the new projects the college is currently rolling out and Mike reflects on his 30+ years in law enforcement. 

The Lancashire Violence Reduction Network are a team of specialists from health, education, police, youth offending, probation, local government and social care who are working together to share best practices and connect services to tackle violent crime and its underlying causes. We talk to Detective Chief Superintendent Sue Clarke who is leading Lancashire Constabulary's initiative to tackle cri...

Liam Mahon by his own mission didn’t enjoy school and left academically with very little. He joined the army and worked hard to gain his Green beret after completing the Royal Marines commando course.  After serving in Iraq he left the army and joined the police spending the next 13 years serving the police of Lancashire. But as we have heard so many times before he attended several incidents that...

In the April of 2013 my guest suffered a traumatic mental breakdown that would cut short his career as a police officer. He chose to write about that experience and in 2017 his book "Blue, a memoire: Keeping the peace and falling to pieces" was published.  Searingly honest, sharing police work in a way perhaps no one has ever done before and the toll that it took on him, it quickly became a best s...

Peter Kirkham was born & bred on a farm in Cheshire. He travelled to London and basically never went back! He joined the Metropolitan Police as a Special Constable whilst at university and joined as a Constable immediately after he finished his degree.   He served in the Metropolitan Police for over 21 years, both in uniform and CID at all ranks up to Detective Chief Inspector.  He spent five...

Lieutenant Colonel Will Meddings is an infantry officer in the Royal Anglian Regiment. Throughout his career he has commanded soldiers on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, in teams sizing  from a 12 man patrol fighting alongside the Afghan Army in Helmand, to a 100-strong company protecting advisors in Kabul. He now commands a battalion of 500 soldiers. In 2016 Will was one of the founders of th...

Tom Wheelhouse spent several years in the Metropolitan police service and one of his career highlights was working on the 2012 London Olympics. However he soon came to realise that his dream job was becoming a nightmare and after careful thought handed in his resignation due to the toxic work atmosphere he found himself in.  With no job and no plan he managed to find work in the commercial sector...

Sarah-Jane (SJ) Lennie served as a police officer for 18 years before struggling with her mental health and finally making a personally difficult decision to change her career.  It was only at the point of finally speaking out about her own experiences of mental ill-health that she came to realise how many of her colleagues were also suffering, though no one was talking.   Coming from a family of...

Tony White is a freelance mental health consultant with 20 years experience of high functioning depression, anxiety and complex PTSD specialising in men’s and workplace mental health. Tony’s work centres around education and advocation of men’s mental health and vulnerability, mentoring and supporting men on a one-to-one level as well as talks and training on the topic using a direct but humorous...

In our last episode Ewen sim (@mindfulcop) explained his work involving mindfulness and what it is. Ewen has kindly returned to record a mindfulness mediation which lasts just under 20 minutes. So relax, unwind and let the moment take you. I do hope you enjoy it. Music by www. Premierbeat.com www.bensound.com

Ewen Sim first discovered mindfulness whilst at university and it seemed a natural partner to his interest in Buddhism. Over the years he has taken additional training in yoga and hypnotherapy. In 2018 he was invited to the Houses of Parliament to take part in a Parliamentary committee looking at well-being and mindfulness in the armed and emergency services.  He is also a busy response officer wi...

In our last episode a  Detective described his mental breakdown, his post traumatic stress diagnosis and the collapse of his shed. In this episode he shares with us how he sought help, overcame stigma and like a broken bone (a topic he is also familiar with) became stronger as a result of his lived experience. He now as a result, has a strong beautiful shed. I began by asking him about his first s...

A mental health episode , in the police at least, is affectionately known as a shed collapse. A Night Detective attended an incident at the back end of 2009 that would cause HIS shed to well and truly collapse three years later. Such was the trauma he experienced, he tried to take his own life. In a two part podcast, he describes the incident that lead to his breakdown. In the second episode he de...

Ian Whitehead is a career detective having spent the last 24 years in Lancashire Constabulary.  His early career saw him on various squads tackling burglary and robbery before moving on to serious and organised crime. He has served in every rank up to chief inspector in both uniformed and detective roles. He was promoted to detective superintendent and in 2017 became the head of public protection,...

At 1.48pm on Wednesday the 5th January 1983 the police control room at Blackpool broadcast a radio message that was to change the lives of many and would result in the loss of four human beings. Holiday maker Alistair Anthony was walking his Jack Russell dog along the lower walk when it went into the sea. He attempted a rescue but was washed away into a sea that has been described by many as some...

This year marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, the end of the war. Join us at War Memorial 565 in Blackpool as we experience this years remembrance service and some of views of those who were there.

Today is World Mental Health Awareness Day. After doing a series of podcasts with ex offenders I promised that I would share my own childhood experiences.  Fairly boring but no less impactful on me and that is the point. You don’t have to be the victim of a traumatic event to traumatised.  The podcast does not come from a point of expertise but one of experience. In hindsight, dealing with victims...

Compassion at Work Toolkit Fiona Meechan’s current role is Lecturer in Healthcare Leadership and Management at the Alliance Manchester Business School, where she delivers an MSc in Healthcare Leadership for people working in a wide range of senior clinical and non-clinical roles across the NHS. Previous roles include: Fiona has recently written a ‘Compassion at Work Toolkit’ for the National Forum...

There was nothing common about the cold Katie Hutchings caught over the Easter of 2015. Within day's she was taken to hospital and put on the urgent transplant list. The virus has attacked her heart and had damaged it beyond repair. She eventually received a new donor heart and you would think that would have been the beginning of a new life. However it was to be the start of a nightmare she only...

My guest today comes from a large family of privilege and wealth. His own father was quite elderly when he was born and he was sent to boarding school at an early age where he was sexually abused. All this made my guest feel worthless and he struggled to come to terms with his own emotions. He chose alcohol to take the pain away. As he got older he would enter into relationships which would ultima...

In the third of my podcasts on adverse childhood experiences I talk to a man who committed a string of armed robberies in the south east of England at provincial building societies. Such became his notoriety he was dubbed the M25 bandit. He was eventually arrested by the Metropolitan Police's SO19 and has spent a total of eighteen and a half years in prison. Graham Godden had a difficult childhood...

In the second of my podcasts on adverse childhood experiences my guest has asked to remain anonymous for no other reason that to protect the identities of those people involved. He was responsible for an assault which resulted in a gaol sentence. Whilst inside and through the 12 step program, he closely examined himself and looked at his actions and how they were influenced by his own childhood ex...