Hello You - the Shropshire podcast with Jim Hawkins

‘What was the pain that she was trying to numb?’ Amy started drinking alcohol, along with many of her peers, in her very early teens. By the time she was a university student, she was addicted to alcohol ‘It just took all the good things out of her life’ Jane Mackenzie doesn’t want other young people to go through what Amy did. She doesn’t want other parents to know the pain she’s known, either. F...

Would you mind answering a few questions for me? There are some questions I’d love to know your answers to. Find out what those questions are in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast In return, I’ll answer questions for you and your friends If you’re part of a group, an organisation or a regular meet-up, fancy getting together for a chat? I’m happy to come to see you, either as a guest...

Welcome to the award-winning Hello You the Shropshire podcast! I was thrilled and very surprised to be recognised in Shrewsbury’s Mayor’s Awards for Hello You the Shropshire podcast. I’ll now be using the phrase ‘award-winning’ as often and as gratuitously as you’d expect. I picked up an award in the ‘Courtesy’ category, which is basically the ‘Vibe’ category. It recognises people whose work, volu...

*content warning: drug use, rape, extreme sex, suicide, grooming and coercive behaviour* ‘I literally could not believe what I had done’ James is thirty-six years old. A former hairdressing salon manager and estate agent, over the last six years he’s lost his job, his home and his husband because of chemsex. In this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, James tells his story because, as he...

‘It’s a way of educating people about our amazing county’ Sarah Evans is a mixed-media artist based in Wem, whose work can be seen all across Shropshire. Shrewsbury’s Flaxmill Maltings commissioned Sarah to create a mural to brighten up the area on the former-canal side of the building’s café. As Sarah works with a variety of fragile and delicate materials, the plan was always to digitise the comp...

I’ve been there. You might have, too It’s the point where, as Hello You family member Jen puts it, ‘someone lets go of all the pretending’. Jen’s lifelong friend reached that point on March 6th this year. It’s what has happened - or not happened - since, that Jen wants to share with you in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast. What do you think of Jen’s story? Does it strike a chord wi...

A conversation over tea with Ann and her 99-year-old mum Elsie, at their home in Pentre Ann’s lived and worked in forty-four different countries. Her mum Elsie is ninety-nine years old. So as you can imagine, between them they have quite a few stories to tell … often about each other! You can hear those stories in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, along with discussions about: * re...

Last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court that the legal definition of ‘woman’ is based on biological sex has left trans people angry and distressed. This decision is something that they feel strikes at the very core of who they are, so it’s no surprise that this weekend has seen rallies and actions in support of trans people, across the country … including in Shropshire. Saturday afternoon saw a la...

Katherine Plymley would have had a lot to say about this week Katherine Plymley, a contemporary of Jane Austen from Longnor , kept a detailed diary. She was very well-connected for a single woman from rural Shropshire; she knew the Darwins, the Wedgwoods, Thomas Telford and many other influential people of the time. Katherine’s diaries form an invaluable archive that tells us about the major event...

Continuing the bench motif … You meet really interesting people on benches. In this case, I met Shrewsbury poet Lewis Wyn Davies. This wasn’t an accidental or random meeting, though. A bench is pictured on the front cover of Lewis’s new collection of poems, State , in an illustration by Lewis’s creative and life partner Saffron Russell. You’ll hear why, and which particular bench that is, in this...

The 100th episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast! Can you believe that? I can’t deny that I’m pretty damn proud to have made this milestone, especially considering I started Hello You eighteen months ago … by accident. Hey, these things happen. If you want to know how and why this all started, listen to the first episode? It’s quite short. And clearly I have no idea what I’m doing, I just fee...

Say hello to Cinnamon, the world’s best-known capybara Cinnamon sparked worldwide interest last autumn when she did a runner from her enclosure at Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in Shropshire. The story of her little holiday has been turned into a delightful picture book by Shrewsbury author Tracey J Morgan and much-loved illustrator Hercule Van Wolfwinkle , creator of the famous Rubbish Pet Portraits...

Creating music for wellbeing Rose and Gavin Lawson’s life journey has taken them from Leeds to mid-Wales, to France and Spain, leading to some years living on Ibiza. They’re now back in mid-Wales, just across the Shropshire border, and they’re doing some very interesting things indeed. ‘Electronic music is a healing modality’ Did you get creative during lockdown? Lockdown - especially under Spain’...

‘We’re friends out together’ On Hello You the Shropshire podcast a few weeks back, I asked what you’d learned from a local Facebook group. I received loads of really interesting answers, including one from Paul Kalinauckas about what he’d learned from his own Facebook group. Intrigued, I met Paul to find out more. You can hear what happened on this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast. Chec...

Content/trigger warnings: rape, sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, suicide, self-harm ‘As soon as you open the door, you’re in danger’ At eighteen years old, Kate Elysia fell victim to Telford’s gang of sex abusers. But how? And what happened afterwards? ‘They were telling me it was my fault’ Kate’s now in her thirties. She’s back in Telford after many years away, working in mental health. ‘...

Gary Nolan: singer, songwriter, squash player, teacher and now … children’s author, too JUMP and JUMP2 are available to purchase online in paperback and ebook format. Both books are free if you have a Kindle Unlimited account, or you can download them for 99p and £2.99, respectively. The paperbacks retail at £12.99 each. Find out more at the website! Friday’s episode Kate Elysia is a survivor of T...

‘Who’s looking at the bigger picture?’ In recent years there’s been much discussion about what makes Shrewsbury a good place to live … and what could make it better. Lisa Richards has a fine eye for the details that make towns and cities attractive, comfortable and exciting. She’s an urban designer, a placemaker, working to make places thrive, not just survive. Lisa is also (like me) a long-time S...

This episode’s quite soundscapey, so if you can, please listen to it in stereo? Earbuds in, headphones on, play it in the car or stream at home if you have an actual hifi that can do it? Also, unlike most ‘bench’ episodes of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, it has a preamble at the front and a postamble on the end. This is because there’s some stuff that needs explaining. Stuff that is, tbh, my f...

Everyone, surely, has heard of the Samaritans … but what exactly do they do? And what’s it like, being a Samaritans listening volunteer? As I’ve recently been asking for suggestions for benches where I can sit and record conversations for Hello You, Debbie from Telford Samaritans invited me to their Wellington HQ, to sit on a brand-new bench. The bench is a beautiful thing. It’s recently been hand...

Rich Uridge and I have some things in common. We both live in Shropshire. We’re both ex-BBC. And we’ve both lost our mothers … but in very different circumstances. You can hear Richard’s story in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, recorded in the garden of Jemima’s Kitchen café in Church Stretton. Find out more about Richard Uridge’s media training work and read his blog too. Thank...

Is that subtitle a good way of describing Hello You the Shropshire podcast? Or is it too corporate? Too polished? Too - let’s be honest here - wanky? Tell me: If you’re a new subscriber, a new member of the Hello You family: Hello! You’re very welcome around the Hello You virtual kitchen table. Pull up a chair, why don’t you? So many people have subscribed to Hello You the Shropshire podcast in th...

The first thing I need to say is: Hello, lovely new members of the Hello You family! I don’t know quite what’s happened, but over the last 24 hours the subscriptions to Hello You the Shropshire podcast have absolutely taken off. If that’s what posting pictures of pancakes on Facebook does, then the crêpes will be hitting the ‘Gram every damn day (saw what I did there?). Seriously: Whether you’re a...

‘When you’re in person, the way someone laughs, the way they move, that can be really attractive’ Pixie Greatorex wants Shropshire to find love. That’s why she set up Speed Dating Shropshire . Single people are ‘quite a forgotten community’, says Pixie, and older single people in particular. So what’s she doing about it? Find out in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast , in which Pixie...

If, like me, you’ve ever sought help with your mental health, you’ve probably been told that exercise and physical activity can boost your mood and aid your recovery. The problem is, when your mental health’s not great, often the last thing you feel like doing is any exercise or physical activity. Jo Hazell-Watkins and Kevin Braddock learned how helpful fitness and strength training can be when pe...

From teacher to actor, from Shropshire to Ireland and India Shropshire native Joanna Purslow spent twenty years as a primary school teacher in Shrewsbury. Then she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a professional actor. Hear her story in this episode of Hello You. ‘A lot of people in our society don’t feel like they’re respected or valued’ Joanna’s taken a one-woman show to Edinburg...