Turning Life's Curveballs Into Strengths, with Kate Hughes

Kate Hughes, Tom Hitchcock, how are you? I’m really well said, Tom, how are you? Not too bad. Looking forward to this episode. We’ve had a couple of little conversations prior. And in this case, we actually had a lovely technical difficulty where I was listening to my own voice back to me. And you know what? No one like sounded their own voice.

So… I’m glad we fixed it. Yes, I am too as well. It’s actually, we try to persevere, but it’s actually really off-putting really good to hear yourself coming back again. It’s actually awkward to look at yourself, let alone hear your own voice back again. You know, so yes, I’m glad we fixed it. Modern technology, eh? So, um, choice. Anyway, so we’ve got an audience here, which is worldwide. Okay, we’ve got people that own businesses, there’s people that started off their careers, we’ve got retirees, but you name it, there’s all sorts and it’s growing all the time. So we have a very agnostic audience here and they’ve been listening to you, your story and what you bring to the world. So just maybe bearing that in mind and give us a little introduction as to who Kate Hughes is today please.

Sure. Well, I am a mum of four children. Firstly, that is my biggest job and my most important job I think. And it really is behind everything I do is creating a future for my children and I. We are based in Sydney and have always been Sydney based as a family. I have a background in all sorts of different things. Everything from an assistant nurse when I was very young in a past life, right through to a cake decorator and then I also worked in marketing in the FMCG sector. So I’ve sort of done all sorts of different things over the years. My priority has always been family. And I know better than anyone that things don’t go to plan. Life could change in blink of an eye. And I’m reluctantly resilient.

So I’ve just had to figure it out as I go. And I think I’m up to about plan. L by now, if we started at A. Yeah, my life is certainly one of those that hasn’t gone as I expected and only enough now most of my clients are in the same boat so it’s, I can relate to that aspect of their life working in disability now. It’s interesting so I’m glad I mentioned before the agnostic components of the audience because everybody has those kerbals, everybody have these things that don’t go to plant and I have never heard of someone where everything’s gone to plan with everything all the time. So those projections that we go to our bank with because we need a business loan or something like that, it never happens that way. Even if it’s better, even if it’s an upside to it, it never goes to plan and I think people need to really sit on that and maybe be a bit more of a realist and factor these things in. And there’s only so much to be factor but I think once you accept that life isn’t perfect and

this stuff’s going to happen then it becomes more tolerable I find. It does I agree with that actually and I think it’s an illusion that we have any sort of real control over the circumstances of our lives. Obviously we can hope and dream and plan and aspire, but the reality is that everything can change in the blink of an eye and I think it keeps you humble and keeps you appreciative of what you’ve got in your life every day if you just remember that. It’s unfortunately can be easily forgotten again and I’m guilty of that too, but life reminds me often. It’s interesting when you say these things that you know, that you know with circumstance absolutely I don’t believe you can control that. There’s a bit the mindset around manifestation abundance mindset and things like this but things still happen COVID still happens these things just still happen but what I do what I found and probably a bit of self-reflection maybe where the worst things I could control and that’s how I could judge myself fairly is how I reacted to things okay so something bad happened who am I I’m gonna come out of it, I’m gonna come out of it, okay, I’m gonna come out of it terribly or really well, you know, and that’s all me.

That’s right. Yeah, and that’s the only thing we really ultimately have that control over, isn’t it? Is the attitude that we’ll approach every situation with and whether we expect it or not, I think. Okay, so, I’m a bit of a spoiler. I know a tiny bit of your story, but I haven’t heard it fully and what have you, but I suppose anyone listening to this would feel that there’s a big turning point in your life

that if you’re comfortable sharing please do. But if I didn’t know a little bit already I would feel like, okay well tell me more, what is the big kerbals across your path and made you who you are today? Unfortunately, there’s a couple. So, yeah, I lost my mum when I was 16 years old in a tragic medical mishap. And my dad and my step-mum then have been my parents in my life since I was 16. I’m one of four children. So we all have that shared experience of having lost a mum at a young age and having to navigate life. I don’t think there’s an age that’s better than any other to lose your mum.

It’s always going to be a terrible experience. The other things I’ve had too failed marriages and that’s a really hard thing to say publicly but anyone who knows me knows that’s the case and that’s pretty hard to say to live with. There’s a lot of shame that comes with that I I think, if I’m completely honest. And yeah, that’s not at all what I had. It’s not at all how I thought my life would go. And certainly when I walked down the aisle and made my commitment on both occasions, I made those commitments wholeheartedly and really believed that those marriages would last one at a time, clearly.

The other thing that I’ve experienced, which was a real curveball is brain hemorrhage, very small but significant brain hemorrhage about 10 years ago, where I learned that I have a cavernoma in my brain. It sits very deep within my brain. Cavernoma is an abnormal bunch of blood vessels that can leak and have small hemorrhages. So a lot of people live with them. A lot of people live with them with quite severe disabilities as a result. And thankfully I’m one of the lucky ones. Mine is inoperable. So I’m just monitored by my neurosurgeon every year, but I live with the reality of the possibility of a bleed

that could change my life. And there’s nothing I can do to prevent it. And there is nothing really that I can do that would cause it either. So that’s really out of my hands. Probably has a big impact on that comment I made earlier Yeah, it’s good. I had talks exactly to that, yes. Yeah, it does. But it also has given me quite a unique perspective, I think, on life and

certainly with the other things that I’ve been through, two of my children are neurodivergent and, you know, I’ve had other little complexities along the way that I’ve just, they just remind me all the time, you know, that we should be grateful for what we have now, have to keep trying, can’t give up, have to keep fighting. And ultimately whatever legacy we leave behind will tell our story. So we’ve got to make the best of the circumstances we’re in. You know, it all sounds a bit sort of fluffy, but on the really hard days, that’s what keeps me going, I think. And these four kids who need me and who I ultimately have to answer to at the end day for how I’ve handled this whole life we live. And that’s just it isn’t it? And it’s yeah I’ve got a quite a vocal pet hate of mine is I’m not a big fan of life coaches and sorry to any life coaches at the listening but it I can put some context to this it’s I’ll find a lot of life coaches at early 20s.

Haven’t really lived a lot of life yet. That’s just it, isn’t it? So, but then when you find someone who’s kind of doing that role in society, later in age, and they’ve gone through things, then they actually don’t call themselves lifeguards, call themselves something else. So they’ve learned to give themselves a different name anyway. So I can still stand by it. But it is for that reason. Yeah. But so when people have experienced things, then you’ve got that credibility and you got my attention, you know, because how can I put myself through those shoes? How can I see myself through that? What can I learn? What has happened to me and so forth? And there’s a lot to be said for that for other people. And then people can make comparisons as well. So people listening to your story that we’re having their own challenges, but then maybe comparatively, you know, it’s not quite as bad, for example, and it can put some context and just sort of help dissolve it and make it easier for them so it can’t be handled as well.

And look I think that’s actually something I’ve learned a lot through working in the disability sector is that we really can’t compare our circumstances to each other’s because everyone’s journey is going to have you know highs and lows. One person’s worst day might look on paper better or worse than your worst day but they’re still a human just trying to navigate the circumstances they’re in and it might feel like the hardest day of their life even if, you know, it doesn’t maybe look like the hardest day in someone else’s life. I think that to just have that understanding of people’s own experience, we’re all just going to come at it from the lens that we sit behind, which is our own processes, our own scars, our own learnings from other, you know, life experiences, I think we can all be more compassionate towards each other and towards ourselves too. If you’re having a really hard time not looking at someone else’s story and then beating yourself up for struggling, because that’s, I just don’t think we need to take that on. I don’t think it’s helpful or healthy. You know, I think, you know, we’re all human, we all hurt, we all struggle. I think there’s a lot to be said for not comparing.

Yes, yes, I agree with that. I did a course with 123 Magic, the book, to help with bringing up the kids and what have you, you know it. And they said to us, if you speak to a kid and you ask them to share their toy and they kick off the screen and have it to enter. you see the equivalent to us as adults when you’ve got a brand new fralier and you drive away and your neighbour asks to take it for a spin. No, no, no, no, no, no. And then when you contextualise these things it makes a lot more sense, you know. So, okay, alright. So fast forward to today. To this bit about what you’re up to, what you’re bringing into society and how maybe we can help you as well.

Yeah, fantastic. So what my mission, I think my calling in life, I’ve finally landed in, which is to advocate for the need for people who are using mobility equipment like wheelchairs, shower chairs, any kind of mobility equipment. Every user has the right for that equipment to be clean every day. So there’s a huge gap in understanding and knowledge and practical application. And in many cases around Australia, and I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but I would assume that it’s similar,

a lot of the equipment doesn’t get cleaned at all. And if it does, it’s minimal and it’s not done with a method that’s actually protecting people from the risk of infection or from protecting the equipment from damage or perhaps removing the odours that might be on that equipment. And I need to say, I need to make really clear that whenever I talk about the hygiene of equipment, I never ever want anyone to feel embarrassed or ashamed if they are using equipment that doesn’t feel clean to them or for families who are caring for somebody whose equipment might not be getting cleaned, There is no shame at all.

Certainly no shame at all directed from me, no judgment at all. The only people I’ll judge are the facility managers who’ve got clients. Because equipment could be looked after better and I get up and about it because it makes me really mad. But essentially there’s a lot of research now that talks about the effect that proper cleaning of this equipment can have on us as a community. and a study done in 2024 in Australia actually found that through proper processes which is two different types of cleaning that this equipment needs in a hospital environment that equipment when properly cleaned actually reduced the transmission of a hospital-acquired infections by 35%. Wow that’s a big number. That’s a really big number. It’s really big and if you actually look the numbers of people who are ill from hospital acquired infection and die from hospital acquired infections in Australia each year. If we reduced it by 35% we could actually save 2,765 lives in year simply by cleaning the equipment better. So I’ve been doing this for five years already.

That research was done in 2024 and I just stumbled across it. I actually had nothing to do with and didn’t know I was there. I just got very excited when I found it. But it has made me really aware of the fact that there’s a huge gap here. And so I have now sort of branched out into awareness and education as well as providing a service for people. I’m really passionate about creating more awareness around this problem because it seems that we’ve come to a place of just thinking, well, wheelchairs get dirty, you know, or wheelchair smell funny or, you know, that’s just what happens.

So many times they’re not being cleaned at all and it’s just accepted. So that is what I do now. Okay. When you say we’re doing this five years, what’s the name of the organisation? My business is called Pure Wheelchairs. Okay. Yeah, that’s the name of my Sydney based business. We’re also now though working on a grassroots movement to just collaborate with other people in the sector to raise awareness of the issue rather than, you know, any commercial gain but just raise awareness of the issue and speak up for those people that can’t advocate for themselves because unfortunately the very worst cases of buildup on chairs that we see is of the chairs of people who don’t have the ability to verbally advocate for themselves,

which is really distressing and the level of buildup on those chairs is completely unacceptable. We really need to do better for those guys and for everyone they need to understand biofilms and bacteria and what’s happening on the surfaces of chairs so that they can protect themselves and protect their loved ones or organisations can protect their clients and staff. Okay, so playing our part to help raise awareness is having you on here. Anybody who knows someone who’s wheelchair bound or the wheelchair bound themselves or whatever the case might be,

what should be their first step upon listening to this or maybe taking action on what you do as you’re calling? I would ask that they Google wheelchair hygiene or equipment hygiene. When I talk about wheelchairs, it really is sort of my hero product. But we’re talking about walkers and hoists and even hospital beds, hospital style beds that people have at home, power chairs, manual chairs, all sorts of equipment, mobility scooters, everything that comes under that umbrella of equipment. If you start to think about the level of buildup on that piece of equipment that belongs to your loved one or yourself, make some inquiries about how to look after it. Speak to your manufacturer or our website has a lot of resources on it that are free for people to access. We want people to be able to both manage their own hygiene as much as possible and also understand the benefits of a deep cleaning service. And there’s a lot more deep cleaning services becoming available around Australia at the moment.

So that hopefully it won’t be long before everyone has access to that. But I think the first step would be just to have a closer look at that chair or that piece of equipment. Put your nose to it. And a really good sort of assessment is would you feel comfortable sitting in it for several hours without the opportunity to get out of that piece of equipment. And if you’re not comfortable doing that yourself then that’s a pretty good indicator that that chair needs to be maintained better. Yeah, I know if I could ask a perfect limb assessment, it’s, yeah, put yourself on people’s shoes, it’s kind of back to where we started the whole conversation really in the first place. Okay, alright, so anybody listening to this, especially Sydney based in this case, that would like to reach out to you to have some more information, have more conversation, what would be the best route for them to make contact with you Kate?

Well they could contact me via LinkedIn, Kate Hughes or at our website which is PureWheelChairs.com.au Love it, perfect. I’m sure we’ll have people queuing up to have a conversation with you and making life better for others, we like that. So anyway, thank you for your time, for being open and transparent with some of your life journeys so far and yeah if we can help your calling come to to life a bit more then that’s music to my ears. Yeah thank you I appreciate that Tom thanks for having me on. You’re welcome. Hello again it is I am Mr Purple thanks again for watching this video if you like my videos we like what we’re trying to do here please subscribe if you haven’t done it already. The other thing that’s very popular right now is the t-shirts, the Mr Purple t-shirts. There’s lots of people wearing these at the moment. You can grab yours on our website, copy this link below. So once again, thanks for listening. We love your feedback, engage with us and speak soon.