On this week's episode, we're joined by Olympic gold medallist and all-round legend Sally Gunnell, who, just months out from her 60th birthday, is proving that the woman who once held every major athletics title simultaneously has absolutely no intention of slowing down now.

Sally opens up about what it really feels like to approach 60 when your body has been your career, your identity, and your instrument. She talks candidly about the strange grief of losing elite fitness, why pregnancy was actually a smoother transition than retirement, and how she learnt, slowly, honestly, to stop being the centre of her own universe. Spoiler: it took a few years and three boys.

We get into the messy, relatable stuff too: the menopause weight that won't budge no matter how many walks you take, the confidence that quietly disappears, and why Sally's online programme Life's Hurdle was born from exactly that frustration. Because whether you were a world record holder or just trying to get round the Great North Run, the struggle at this stage of life turns out to be remarkably similar.

Sally's outlook, control the controllables, live in the now, look forward not back, is either deeply inspiring or mildly infuriating depending on your relationship with catastrophising.

It's never just about fitness. It's about who you are when the thing that defined you has changed and how you build something new, stronger, and honestly more fun.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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On this week’s Midweek Catchup, we wander cheerfully off-piste — from the unexpected thrill of blue duck eggs and medication-induced hunger, to Valentine’s gestures that don’t quite go to plan. But it’s never just about the small stuff.

Kay opens up about losing her mum’s ring and why it’s shaken her more than she expected, sharing listener stories that prove lost things have a habit of turning up when you least expect them. Along the way, we get into inherited superstitions, magpies, lucky mandarins, and the strange rituals we lean on when life feels a bit wobbly.

Whether you’re fiercely practical or quietly superstitious, this one’s about memory, meaning, and why objects — and habits — can carry far more weight than they should. Because no one tells you how emotional the “little things” can become as you get older.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com

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On this week's episode, we're joined by journalist-turned-celebrant Mandy Appleyard, who shares the extraordinary story of what happened when her fiercely independent mum suffered a devastating stroke at 81 and then asked her daughters to help her die at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

Mandy opens up about the gruelling reality of becoming a carer overnight, the slow heartbreak of watching her mum lose her speech and independence, and the moment she and her sister Kay realised they couldn't talk their mum out of her decision. Because no one tells you what it's actually like - the hidden costs, the bureaucratic maze, the private flight over the Alps, the Swiss chocolates before the final drink, and the knock on the door from police the very next evening.

It's never just about one decision. It's about grief you can't process, guilt that lingers, a two-year criminal investigation, and somehow finding your way back to a life that looks nothing like before. Mandy's honesty about the messy, complicated reality of loving someone enough to let them go, even when every part of you wants them to stay, is breathtaking.

Whether you've been a carer, lost a parent, or simply wondered what you'd do if someone you loved asked you for the unthinkable, this one will stay with you.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.