A WORLD of adventures awaits for a ‘driven’ south Warwickshire entrepreneur who is taking her hit podcast on the road – the first destination leading her back to where it all began.
Catherine Williamson’s new mobile recording studio will take her podcast around the country, including return visits to previous guests who were interviewed for Gobsmacked! Ordinary People With Extraordinary Stories.
The first of those episodes aired for her new Gobsmacked After The Podcast series, as Catherine caught up with Hampton Magna’s Zelda Wilson, believed to be one of the area’s longest cancer survivors.
At the age of just 41, Zelda, whose name translates as ‘warrior,’ was handed what she thought was a death sentence. A breast cancer diagnosis gave her a 50 per cent chance of surviving past one year. It marked the start of an 18-year journey involving a gruelling treatment programme, double mastectomy and hysterectomy and subsequent brain tumours, one of which temporarily robbed her of her speech.
Her mission today is ‘simply’ to not just stay alive but, as far as possible, thrive, as she makes plans between her three-monthly oncology appointments.
Those plans more often than not involve her new-found lust for adventure, including numerous marathons, pilgrimages, cycling expeditions and an Iron Man twice.
And she recently took part in a 10k walk in Lanzarote, soon to be followed by a return to her native South Africa to paddle the Orange River – despite a recent hip replacement.
It seemed fitting that Zelda was invited to officially open Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital’s new state-of-the-art MRI machine earlier this month. Over the years she has been a regular patient at the hospital for imaging and chemotherapy.
Zelda is one of over 50 Gobsmacked guests to appear since its successful launch in 2022, a passion project that has driven Leamington resident Catherine’s selfless desire to champion others.
She is proudit has now been heard in 147 countries around the globe and her newer Cumbrian variant, Assa Marra, has already reached 53 countries in its first year, including Nepal, Costa Rica, Japan, Bhutan, Ghana and Turkey.
She is also fronting her own show on Big Ear Radio, an equal ability community radio station where, true to form, she turns the spotlight onto other people’s remarkable stories.
From navigating the treacherous waters of terrorism and counterterrorism to gangland revenge killings, from heroic endeavours to the sheer determination to live against all odds, a host of inspirational guests share the experiences and the wisdom they’ve mined from the darkest corners of their lives.
Now the van will enable more stories to be told from all corners of the UK. Kitted out with all the latest broadcasting technology, it signals the start of a new direction taken in the Gobsmacked! journey, with ten interviews so far lined up across Warwickshire, Cumbria, Somerset, London and the North East.
Catherine said: “The van is the next stage. It gives me agility, adventure and the freedom to visit guests anywhere without studio costs. It gives me consistency. And I have hardly scratched the surface with YouTube, which is why the ‘After the Podcast’ series will grow into a YouTube project too.
“The van lets me take real, human conversations on the road and show when stories are captured where life actually happens.
All of the kit in the van has been provided by AXIOM Joint Venture, who also support the Assa Colours Podcast Studio in Whitehaven and, as part of the agreement, Catherine is launching six youth-led podcast.
Catherine said: “By using the appeal of podcasting, young people learn sensitive listening, curiosity, and production skills in a real studio environment. It signals a deliberate shift, giving younger talent the chance to take the chair and develop as the next generation of podcasters.
“Their support also means I can take podcasting into schools, into communities, and operate as a small outside broadcast facility. I am genuinely grateful to them.”
Visit https://gobsmacked.me/ to follow Catherine’s Gobsmacked! podcast.
