In episode 346 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with academic Sophie Temple.

Sophie is currently Doctoral Researcher in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University, specialising in eating disorders, disordered eating and body image pathology during the menopausal transition.

She is also part-time Research Fellow in the School of Education, Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs, College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

Sophie's academic expertise is in the subject of menopausal disordered eating, and how it affects women during all stages of the menopause.

In this episode, we discuss Sophie’s academic journey, how and why she landed on this subject within EDs, the lack of research on these women and why, and the work she is doing to shine a light on it and give medical professionals better tools to treat these women too.

We also talk about the comparison between how EDs manifest in teenagers and young women vs menopausal women and the different internal and external factors which may contribute to these women developing one.

For Sophie’s mental health, we discuss her own experience of disordered eating traits during her undergraduate university degree when she was a sprinter at Loughborough University, the factors in her childhood and adolescence which contributed to those traits, and how her own perception of what someone with an ED looks like changed over time and education.

As always, #itsokaytovent

You can follow Sophie's work on social media here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-h-temple/.

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In episode 345 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Richard Pomfrett.

Richard is the Founder and CEO of Boyz-2-Men, an organisation which is dedicated to supporting boys and young men through their journey into adulthood. They offer a supportive environment where they can learn, grow, and navigate the complexities of masculinity with confidence.

B2M believe every young person has the potential to become a role model, so their programmes are tailored to help boys and young men understand and overcome the challenges posed by gender stereotypes and societal expectations.

By engaging with primary and secondary school students, they provide the tools they need to develop into healthy, thoughtful, and responsible individuals.

In this episode we discuss Richard’s professional journey, how he came to found B2M, the programs they offer to young men and the work they do and the impact they have on the young men they work with.

We also have a wider conversation about where men and boys are right now in the UK, the importance of reaching in and listening to them, and how we move forward with a unifying message in this space.

For Richard’s mental health journey, we discuss his diagnosis of Dyslexia, and how it shaped his education and adolescence growing up in the 1970s and 80s, how society’s education of it has changed and how he felt when he was diagnosed at 40 years old.

We also talk about how getting into martial arts and combat sports was pivotal to his life path, the life skills it gave him and why it gave him a solid foundation for the rest of his life going forward.

As always, #itsokaytovent

You can find out more about Boyz-2-Men here: https://boyz-2-men.org.uk/.

You can find out more about The Stay Safe Initiative here: https://thestaysafeinitiative.org.uk/.

You can follow Richard on social media here: https://www.instagram.com/thestaysafeinitiative/.

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In episode 344 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Chris Hemmings.

Chris is a published author and mental health advocate.

Chris is the Founder of two organisations in the men’s mental health space: M-Path and Men’s Therapy Hub.

Chris set up M-Path first in 2019, which is an organisation designed to actively and compassionately engage men and boys in their own experience of existence and encourage them to take charge of their well-being.

After several years, Chris stepped away from the day-to-day running of M-Path to set up Men’s Therapy Hub in 2025, which connects men with male therapists in the UK who are passionate about working with male clients, ensuring those men receive tailored support from professionals who understand the unique challenges men face.

M-Path are an organisation we came across through an article by a young man called Josh Sargent in The Guardian called ‘I’m a teenager who was lured into the manosphere. Here’s how to reach young men like me’. Josh referenced M-Path amongst several other organisations who are doing great work in the men’s space.

M-Path provides men’s mental health, emotional wellbeing & masculinity programmes designed to drive inclusion and allyship within organisations of all sizes.

In this episode we discuss the work M-Path and MTH do in the men’s space, Chris’s journey to entering this space and the impact those organisations have had in the years since their inception.

For Chris’s mental health journey, we focus on several parts of his life which provided severe mental health difficulties.

The first was when his father died when Chris was in his early 20s. After a 3-4 month period, he came close to addiction, and he left his job as a BBC journalist and embarked on a recovery journey.

It was around this time that he also discovered the statistics around male suicide in the UK.

We then talk about another period of grief when one of his best friends died from cancer in 2019, and how he navigated that alongside his mental health.

We discuss all of this, his recovery, and how he turned these experiences into a vehicle for change with Men’s Therapy Hub and becoming a qualified BACP therapist in 2022.

As always, #itsokaytovent

You can find out more about Men's Therapy Hub here: https://menstherapyhub.co.uk/.

You can find out more about M-Path here: https://m-path.co.uk/.

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In Part 2 of journalist Niamh Hughes' journey, we discuss her diagnosis of Congenital Hemiplegia and how she managed it from being a young child, through to adolescence and adulthood.

We explore how her acceptance of it came alongside her acceptance of herself as a person, and so many other challenges.

We also talk about the normalisation of disabilities more widely and what still needs to change going forward to support disabled people, wherever they are on the spectrum and whatever disability they may have, physical or mental.

As always, #itsokaytovent

You can find out more about Niamh's work here.

You can follow Niamh on social media below:

• Instagram

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In episode 343 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Niamh Hughes.

Niamh is a freelance journalist, producer, presenter and voiceover artist.

Niamh also happens to have a disability called Congenital Hemiplegia, which is a form of unilateral cerebral palsy. The disability only affects the right side of her body, so she can’t use her right hand and has to type with one hand.

Prior to going freelance, Niamh worked for many years at the BBC and worked as a reporter and producer on the BBC’s accessibility outlet and brand, Access All, then called BBC Ouch.

In Part 1 of this bumper episode, we chart Niamh’s journalism journey and how she was inspired to get involved in it by previous podcast guest Izzie Clarke!

We then discuss how she got her foot in the door at the Beeb, the various roles she's done in her very impressive career so far, including BBC Ouch, Newsnight's 'The 100 Women' programme, BBC News, her decision to leave the Beeb in March 2025 and the challenges of going freelance.

As always, #itsokaytovent

You can find out more about Niamh's work here.

You can follow Niamh on social media below:

• Instagram

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In episode 342 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Olena Lukyanova.

Olena is a qualified therapist and the Director of her therapy practice, OL Psychotherapy and Consulting.

Olena had a desire to become a therapist from a very young age but growing up in the post-Soviet Union era in Ukraine, this wasn’t an option for her, so she studied economics at university and became an economist for many years.

She then moved to the United Arab Emirates and was living there 10 years ago when Ukraine was first invaded by Russia.

Whilst she was there, she set up a Ukrainian cultural club for fellow ex-pats and organised rehabilitation for wounded Ukrainian soldiers and former prisoners of war.

The more time she spent with them, the more she realised that the mental health support of these soldiers should also be a focus, and she began receiving positive feedback from the men and women she worked with about her listening and therapeutic skills.

She then moved to the UK in 2015, and in In March 2022, once the war in Ukraine expanded beyond the Donbass Oblasts, Olena applied to study psychotherapy in the UK at the Metanoia Institute, and she graduated in 2025.

In this episode we discuss her professional journey, her desire to become a therapist and the achievement of becoming one and the clients she has worked with from different nationalities, ethnicities and backgrounds.

We discuss the support she has given to fellow Ukrainian ex-pat clients in the context of the Ukraine war, and also why she doesn’t want to limit herself just to supporting these clients, as important a role as it is.

We then talk about how she’s built her therapy practice, transitioned into this new career, and how it’s made her get to know herself better.

For Olena’s mental health journey, we discuss her life through the lens of a group of revolutions or conflicts: the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the Orange Revolution in 2004, the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine in 2013/2014 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine first in 2014, and again in 2022.

We talk about her experience of childhood bullying in Ukraine for being a ‘different’ person and the environment of the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union, how the Maidan Revolution impacted her and her conception of herself as a Ukrainian and when Russia invaded Ukraine.

As always, #itsokaytovent

You can find out more about Olena and OL Psychotherapy and Consulting here: https://www.ol-therapy.com/.

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In episode 341 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Lucy MacLeod.

Lucy is a firefighter and has worked in the London Fire Brigade for over 16 years across a range of different roles since she joined the LFB in May 2009.

Her current role involves her being a trauma and wellbeing dog handler, which she does with her dog Blue. Together, they have a social media account which brings awareness to wellbeing dogs and the role they play in the fire service.

In her words, Blue acts as a ‘buffer and a bridge’ with people and he helps build trust with them who then feel they can disclose to Lucy on what is happening to them.

In this episode we first discuss her firefighting journey, why she joined it comparatively late in life, the roles she has had and the work she does with Blue now.

For Lucy’s mental health journey, it centres around a terrible accident she experienced in 2004, when she worked as a duty manager at a pool and fitness centre. She inhaled chlorine gas and it burned her upper airway. She was on multiple medications and was diagnosed with PTSD (which we prefer to call PTSI).

After struggling for a period of time, she decided one day that enough was enough and she wanted to take a more holistic approach to her mental health.

She tried everything she could to make her feel better, including CBT therapy, EMDR and acupuncture.

She also got a dog called Lucky, which was a game changer. He got her out of bed in the morning, gave her purpose and was her ‘heartbeat’. Lucy soon got another dog called Poppy to keep Lucky company when she went to work. Lucky unfortunately died in 2019 and Poppy died in 2022.

We talk about the accident, why Lucy has a mantra of ‘you are not your diagnosis, it’s a start point’ and her recovery journey from 2004 to now.

In 2025, she published her first book, a children’s adventure book called ‘Lucy & Blue Save The Day’ and we discuss how the book came about, how she feels to be a children’s author and the impact it’s had on the children who’ve bought it!

As always, #itsokaytovent

Find out more about Lucy's journey and where you can purchase a copy of her book here: https://lucyandblue.com/.

You can follow Lucy & Blue on social media below:

• Instagram
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In episode 340 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Jay Darkmoore.

Jay is a published author, commentator and hosts his own YouTube channel and podcast, discussing issues around policing in the UK.

He has written several books, including crime novels and his own memoir, ‘The Job's F*cked - The Secret Diary of a Police Officer’, which was published in 2025 and details his 10-year career in the English Police Force as a Police Constable.

In this episode we do a deep dive into the book and his journey in the Police, how domestic abuse incidents were handled during his time in the organisation, some of the most difficult call-outs he and his fellow officers had to deal with, what is the truth behind ‘non-crime hate incidents’? Is there a ‘two tier’ system in how crimes are handled? And much more.

For Jay’s mental health journey, we discuss his personal experience of being domestically abused and why that inspired him to join the Police in the first place.

We also talk about family issues he experienced throughout his early life, his relationship with his mum, the lack of control he felt he had in his childhood and adolescence, and how he went about taking that control back as an adult through his choices and life path.

As always, #itsokaytovent

You can find out more about Jay's journey, purchase a copy of his books and subscribe to the Job's F*cked podcast here: https://linktr.ee/Jaydarkmoore.

You can follow Jay on social media below:

• Instagram
• TikTok

TRIGGER WARNING: this podcast contains a brief discussion about suicide, which some listeners may find distressing or upsetting, so please listen with caution.

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