Begin Again with Davina McCall

Begin Again with Davina McCall

Recently, I had the privilege of joining Davina McCall on her Begin Again podcast to talk about something incredibly close to my heart: Hannah, her life, her death, and what it means to begin again when the life you knew has changed forever.

I’ve had many conversations and interviews throughout my career, but this one felt different. It wasn’t about promoting a book or teaching people what to do. It was about sharing what I have lived through and what it continues to teach me about love, loss, change and uncertainty.

When Life Changes

In 2011, Hannah was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumour. In a moment, the future we imagined changed.

For the next 12 years, we lived with enormous uncertainty. Operations, treatments, hope, fear, setbacks and moments of extraordinary joy.

We couldn’t control what was going to happen. We could only decide how we were going to meet what was happening.

When Hannah died on 19 May 2023, life changed again. I had to begin learning how to live in a world without her physically being here.

And perhaps that is what beginning again really means.

It doesn’t mean forgetting what came before or pretending it didn’t happen. It means finding a way to carry what has happened with you while continuing to move forward.

My Conversation with Davina

What I loved about my conversation with Davina was the opportunity to explore what happens when life doesn’t go according to plan.

Because this isn’t only my story.

We all experience moments when the future we imagined suddenly looks different. A diagnosis. A bereavement. A relationship ending. A career change. Children leaving home. A new chapter we didn’t necessarily choose.

Change doesn’t always ask permission.

The question becomes: how do we meet it?

This is increasingly at the heart of my work with STOP 2 THINK. We can’t always control what happens around us, but we can create enough space to become aware of what is happening within us.

To notice the stories we are telling ourselves. To recognise what we can and cannot control. To appreciate what is still here. And to decide who we want to become through what happens next.

Hannah’s Story Continues

Hannah remains an enormous part of my life. Her story continues through the documentary Hannah’s Story, through the work we began supporting children and families in Uganda, and through the person I am becoming.

Being invited onto Begin Again gave me another opportunity to tell her story, but also to explore something I believe applies to all of us.

At some point, life asks every one of us to begin again.

Perhaps the question isn’t:

“How do I get my old life back?”

Perhaps it is:

“Who do I want to become in the life that is in front of me now?”

I’m incredibly grateful to Davina for giving me the space to have this conversation, and I hope it encourages anyone facing their own period of change or uncertainty to recognise that beginning again doesn’t mean leaving your past behind.

Sometimes it means carrying the very best of it forward with you.

To watch the full documentary https://www.teamhannah.com/