OUR AMBASSADOR
NATASHA HAMILTON
We are delighted to announce our celebrity Ambassador Natasha Hamilton who has joined our team as a Voice for the Scars Of Gold campaign and as voluntary support to our charity.
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We are proud to share below Natasha's interview with our founder Dr Liz Murray BCA(h) as one of the 100 Voices for our Scars Of Gold campaign.
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Please note all images and content are copyright protected and not for redistribution without written permission by the charity.
We are delighted and honoured to share our latest interview with another incredible Voice from the Scars Of Gold campaign - our wonderful charity Ambassador and a voice from the record-breaking band Atomic Kitten; Natasha Hamilton. Natasha has joined our charity as an ambassador and as one of the 100 Voices sharing her story of facing life changing health conditions at a young age. In this episode Natasha shares with charity founder Dr Liz Murray how growing up in a girl band from a teenager and the pressures that went with this led to serious mental health issues and severe postnatal depression. Natasha shares the highs and lows of being in the music industry from a young age with some brilliant and funny stories, whilst also sharing of the intensity and lack of mental health support for pop bands in the 90's. After having children Natasha left the music industry for a while and focused on her own wellbeing and nurturing her own family, but shares something that so many people discover too late; how sometimes life stresses take their toll physically. Natasha then went on to be diagnosed with autoimmune disease (thyroid disease) and how this has had a profound impact on her. Natasha has now returned to the music industry not only as a successful solo artist but also launching her own record label to provide the type of support and care for young artists that Natasha herself knows is needed.
We are so grateful to Natasha for sharing her Scars Of Gold with us for our health awareness campaign; sharing a unique and incredible interview for our charity and being an Ambassador supporting our charity. Scars Of Gold is a health awareness campaign using the power of photography, art and interviews to raise awareness of 100 women facing life changing or incurable health conditions at a young age. The collection is being exhibited in London for Women's Health Week in may 2025 (tickets available now on Eventbrite or our website).
Mortal And Strong is a registered charity (1209448) providing centralised support for anyone facing life changing or incurable health conditions.
Interview by Dr Liz Murray BCA(h), photography by Sammy Weston. Scars Of Gold including all content is copyright and trademark protected.
OUR patron
Paralympic gold medallist
Helene Raynsford
We are excited to share our charity patron who immediately resonated with the concept of gold... Paralympic gold medallist Helene Raynsford became one of our Voices for the Scars Of Gold campaign.
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Please note all images and content are copyright protected and not for redistribution without written permission by the charity.
Honoured to have a very special guest as our latest Voice - Team GB Retired Paralympic Gold Medalist in rowing (Beijing Paralympics) 2008- Helene Raynsford. Helene has a truly rare perspective on navigating not only multiple very complex health conditions and living life as a wheelchair user at a young age, facing breast cancer, an ileostomy with a stoma...but how she used her mental training to win Gold in the Paralympic Games as a 'blueprint' to approach each new health challenge. Helene does an incredible amount of advocacy work that isn't always publicly visible; supporting multiple charities, being Chair of the Athletes Commission for the Paralympics GB, a Non-Executive Director for Sports England. Her career in public health reinforces her outreach work at trying to address major health inequalities that still exist - for example the fact that mobile MRI breast screening units are on the whole not wheelchair accessible. Such a humble, modest person who sets the gold standard of what genuine advocacy work is about, using her health conditions to truly help and support others for greater and lasting change. We are honoured to share her health journey as one of our Voices in the Scars of Gold campaign, and for Helene to be Patron to our charity and support our mission here at Mortal And Strong. This interview provides unique and new perspectives on how to prepare mentally for new health challenges and how to keep focused on the end goal (or finishing line). A gold medalist sharing her Scars of Gold, but more importantly a humble human being who has reflected a lot on what it is to be mortal and how to make the most of life and not be defeated by any health challenges.
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