The Resilience Sessions: Series Two is coming

Broadcasters Kriss Akabusi MBE and Emily Dean share their stories of overcoming adversity in candid conversations with military personnel who have dealt with life-changing injuries.

The Resilience Sessions, which grew from the Making Generation R campaign which trained members of Blesma, The Limbless Veterans, to tell their incredible stories of overcoming adversity to 100,000 front line workers, first responders and young people. The first series in 2019 had more than 15,000 downloads.

The opening episode of the new series features BBC Radio 2 broadcaster and author Emily Dean in conversation with Darren Swift, a former soldier who lost both his legs when he was hit by an IRA bomb in Northern Ireland when he was 26-years-old.

Emily talks openly about the loss of both parents and her sister in a three-year period, how she faced grief and built the resilience to cope in the episode, which will be available on Wednesday, December 9.

Kriss Akabussi, a World Champion and Olympic athlete, discusses his early life in foster care and how he achieved a stellar track career with Blesma Member Mat Armitage, who lost his leg following a motorbike accident but recovered to become a free-runner, in the second episode released on Dec 15.
 
“Our Members have been through hugely traumatic experiences and had to deal with life-changing injuries and all their effects,” said Jon Bryant, chief executive of Blesma, which supports veterans, who have suffered limb or eye loss. “The members taking part in the programme all want to help others to develop the same sort of resilience that they have had to. 
 
“As well as presenting their stories to schools, colleges, hospitals and the emergency services, a number of Members have had the opportunity to discuss them with public figures in the Resilience Session podcasts.  These well-known personalities have stories of their own, and the benefits of sharing these are huge.  We are very grateful to all those who have agreed to tell us how they have developed their own resilience to life’s adversities.”

 Alice Driver, presenter of the podcast and founder of The Drive Project who   devised the programme of The Resilience Sessions added: “The podcasts are

inspirational and you feel like you are part of the conversation between two individuals who have been through tough challenges but have come out the other end and are able to talk about how they did it.

“They are not preaching; they are revealing what worked for them. We had some amazing feedback from the first series, particularly from school teachers who said it was really positive for their pupils.

“The podcasts show there is so much common ground no matter what challenges are in front of us and that we can come through it and be ok.”
The series, with a new episode every week through January, features NASA astronaut and Commander of the ISS Steve Swanson, singer and comedienne Judith Owen, Chief Fire Officer and psychologist Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, and former SAS officer Billy Billingham MBE, who stars in the hit TV adventure series Who Dares Wins.

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Editor’s Notes:

The Resilience Sessions is a podcast that brings together injured veterans from Blesma, The Limbless Veterans charity, and a well-known public figured to share their stories of overcoming struggle of all kinds.

The Resilience Sessions podcast grew out of the Making Generation R campaign, a project that trains injured veterans from Blesma, The Limbless Veterans, to share their incredible stories of overcoming adversity with schools and workplaces across the UK. To date, Making Generation R has inspired over 100,000 young people, frontline workers and First Responders.

The podcast is funded by Blesma, The Limbless Veterans charity and delivered by The Drive Project, an award-winning creative social enterprise.

Listen to the podcast here: smarturl.it/resiliencesessions

Watch the podcast here: The Resilience Sessions YouTube Channel

For more information, please contact: info@makinggenerationr.com