Busy Advocating and Making Art – My Life Management
Although pain management is the undercurrent of my life, it no longer rules my life activity. This is a tricky mind battle that underlies everything I do. [...]
July 28th, 2024
12:34 pm
April 11th, 2024
2:04 pm
Four Corners… More like One.
I’m so disappointed in Adele Ferguson and Chris Gillett. I can’t believe this is an ABC story. Firstly, I do want to express my sadness for the [...]
July 24th, 2023
10:33 am
It’s National Pain Week And I’m Celebrating by Writing the End of this Story
Every year I think something amazing will happen during National Pain Week. But every year, nothing amazing ever does. We all wait for answers, but either the answers don't come, or they prove more tiresome. Worst of all, the answers are a direction to a lonely zone – the figure-it-out-yourself zone! So, figure it out myself; I will this year! I'm making National Pain Week AMAZING by writing the end of this story.
July 20th, 2023
3:03 pm
Let’s Be Brave Together
A few months ago and just appointed as CEO of Painaustralia, I was chatting to Giulia, who was making time to connect with people living with pain; our next step would be an interview for some media. Instead, I received an awful message. Giulia is a tough cookie, just watch our chat and feel that fire in her! And she'll be using that fire to put this awful experience to great use - raising funds for So Brave and Painaustralia as she shaves her hair on 31 July. I want us all to get behind her. It's an opportunity to maximise this incredible act of bravery and help two causes that cause such grief in life; Cancer and chronic pain. All funds raised will go to So Brave breast cancer charity and Painaustralia, the peak body representing those in chronic pain - we'll be helping a considerable group of people with one donation.
July 2nd, 2023
1:48 pm
More and More Fab Women Founders, More and MoreGoodDays
Woohooo! The startup world is beginning to thrive with people who want to impact healthcare using their negative experiences. These people want to help others, change the quality of care and make sure you get better faster. One of these great people is Neala Fulia, and I am excited to have the chance to introduce More Good Days (MGD), a new online digital healthcare company Neala founded dedicated to helping individuals find relief from chronic pain - specifically fibromyalgia. I'm also excited that MGD has become a Friend of My Health Story (MHS), which signifies a shared commitment to improving the quality of care for all of us. It's what we all deserve and what has been so slow in coming.
April 12th, 2023
11:33 am
PainAustralia Survey Report: Impact of opioid regulatory reforms on people living with chronic pain
When will patients be understood and listened to?! It’s obviously necessary to have a peak body addressing the needs of the pain community. Still, the frustration of [...]
April 8th, 2023
1:45 pm
My recent chat with PainAustralia’s new CEO, Giulia Jones – Giulia has quite the agenda!
Making the invisible visible You'll hear this wonderful reference in my chat with Giulia – to make what is invisible visible is one of her four goals while in the position of CEO at PainAustralia. I found Giulia incredibly down-to-earth and easy to connect with. Of course, with six children, you instantly know she understands pain (and is highly able!!), but her admission that she had never thought of the pain she experienced as chronic really struck me.
March 7th, 2023
6:07 am
Soula Mantalvanos in Times News Group’s Women in Business International Women’s Day 2023 Edition
(Image: Soula Mantalvanos, founder My Health Story features in Women in Business, Bellarine Times International Women’s Day special edition 2023) Feature, Women in Business, Bellarine Times International [...]
October 4th, 2022
2:30 pm
WEBINAR: Can visualising the personal health experience lead to better care and understanding?
Can visualising the personal health experience lead to better care and understanding? You all know what I think and believe about this. But now, I'm aiming to inform the rest of [...]
September 24th, 2022
11:50 am
My Lived Experience at CODA Conference
The Primary Care workshop at this year's CODA Conference was my favorite lived experience contribution to date! The workshop approach was more effective than my other 'standup gigs'. Something has clicked with me lately – I've stepped out of chronic illness's emotional and physical sides and more often partaking in health education. I like it! We must believe that twitches, spasms, toilet function-changing effects, noise, screaming, soreness, stabbing, burning, itching, fatiguing, and draining effects of chronic pain can be controlled. If you had told me this between my first and 4.5-year mark, I would have felt angry and said, 'My issue is severe, far more serious than everyone realises, and my healthcare practitioners are all missing the terrible thing in my body, and I am going to die from it.'