In the latest episode of the Fking Normal Podcast, hosts Rina and Lauren sit down with Cara Roughani to discuss her remarkable parenting journey and the inspiration behind creating SEND Protect. Cara, a passionate advocate for the financial empowerment of families with SEND children, shared her personal experiences navigating her parenting journey as well as the inspiration behind her founding SEND Protect. Wanting to educate families, parents and carers with the knowledge and tools they need to safeguard their child's finances, Cara used her vast experience in the field to create a safe space to help other families. The conversation is incredibly valuable as Cara answers finance related questions sent from the podcast community about money, savings, wills and pensions (to name just a few...)

In this episode, Rina and Lauren talk with Sara Johnson about the birth and diagnosis of her now 19 year old son, who has 18p deletion syndrome. They discuss how this led to her career pivot, as after forging a successful career as a TV drama executive, Sara now focuses her efforts on advocating for and representing disabled talent in the industry. It is a sweary, candid and often emotional discussion, peppered with Sara’s nuggets of wisdom.  

On this weeks episode, Rina and Lauren chatted with South African native Marina Dias on her life as a SEND parent and her work as an Occupational Therapist. The trio discuss the initial difficulties when you’re first thrust into the parent/carer space, Marina’s difficult experience bringing her son Tommy into the world and how her work as an OT has played a role in how she helps not only the children she sees, but their families too.

Our first live show was recorded at the Parcel Yard, London Kings Cross at the end of April 2024. We were absolutely overwhelmed by the love, warmth and connection in the room. More to come! Thank you so much to everyone who was able to join us. For those who weren’t, you can share in the experience with this episode and we hope to have news of more events for the community to join very soon.

During this live event, the incredible Polly Hazelwood stepped in last minute to host a Q&A with Lauren and Rina. Audience members also had their chance to both answer and ask questions of the panel. The conversation was honest, emotional, supportive and often f**king joyous.

On this week’s episode, Rina and Lauren sat down with dad Kevin Troy to talk about his journey to fatherhood. Having previously worked in fast paced, male dominated environments, centred around the ‘work hard, play hard’ philosophy, Kevin’s world has slowed down significantly since his daughter Coraline was born in 2018. Diagnosed with Downs Syndrome, Coraline not only made Kevin a dad, but inspired him to create an organic skincare brand named after her.

In this episode, Rina and Lauren talk with Julia Marsan about her experience in supporting her disabled daughter Nicole in the transition to adulthood. Julia shares how she fought to find the right solutions to both enable Nicole to live as independently as possible outside of the care of her parents into supported living where she now lives "the best life, in her own way", as well as the way to maintain balance in her and her husband's own lives.

In this episode, Lauren and Rina talk with mother, advocate and BBC commissioning editor Suzanne McManus on her neurodivergent family, the parenting approach she has learnt to adopt for her two autistic children and her mission to create positive change in her industry.

In this episode, Lauren and Rina talk with dance movement psychotherapist and mother Juliet Diener on building an inclusive community and working with disabled children and their families. Juliet shares her passion for what she does with her charity organisation icandance and how her personal family story has influenced the empathy and understanding she brings to the disabled young people she works with and their parent carer families.

In this episode, Lauren and Rina talk with teacher and mum Camilla Cook on how she left her home, job and life behind her during the COVID pandemic at the same time as coming to terms with the fact that her youngest daughter Sylva, had a yet undiagnosed genetic condition.

In this episode, Rina and Lauren talk with journalist and fellow podcaster Leisa Millar on the world of work as parent carers. Leisa is host of the SEN Mums’ Career Club podcast where she speaks with women in fascinating and diverse roles who are also parent carers and finds out how they make paid work work for them.

This week, Rina and Lauren talk with Rachel Pears about her experience as a 'sandwich carer'. Rachel describes the challenges of her diagnosis journey for her daughter (who has a rare genetic condition) while simultaneously caring for both her parents. As Rachel herself put it, she felt like she was competing in the “caring olympics”, but without any time for the training!

In the first episode of Series 3, Rina and Lauren talk with nutritionist, health professional and SEND mum Nicole Stephens. Nicole candidly shares how, despite her professional knowledge, she neglected to look after her own health and wellbeing in the early days before and after her daughter was diagnosed.

In the final episode of series 2 Lauren and Rina take to the couch for a different kind of conversation with psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber. The discussion covers some of the emotional themes that come up again and again with parents of disabled children and Charlotte answers questions submitted by listeners.

Charlotte shares her professional and candid insight on topics like: the pressure to cope; the sneaky emotion that is guilt; asking for help; and how to deal with ongoing trauma. It is an illuminating conversation, peppered with vulnerability, wisdom and laughter.

In this week’s episode, Lauren and Rina interview the incredible social entrepreneur and campaigner, Tinuke Awe. Tinuke recounts her experiences raising her black autistic son and passionately describes the work that she is doing to challenge prejudice, create community and shine a light on her son’s identity. The group discusses the absence of role models and representation, the importance of finding community and how to tackle cultural barriers to acceptance of disabled children. It is an emotional and joyful conversation that veers between anger, tears and lots of laughter.

In this week’s episode Rina and Lauren discuss the importance of connecting with people who share your experience, building a community (hello the fkingnormal podcast!) and just how valuable this is for providing a safe space to cope through difficulties — together. They interview Australian author and advocate Melanie Dimmitt on her journey to accepting her less typical parenting path, what she learnt and what she has gone on to achieve to support others in a similar position.

Melanie discusses the initial feelings she had hearing her son’s diagnosis, her path to finding acceptance and how connecting with others in similar situations opened her eyes and prompted her to write her debut book. The group discuss their own routes to acceptance and how building support networks with others was the life line that they all needed. Melanie spoke candidly about what she first struggled with, but also highlighted just how relieving it was to find others that she could relate so deeply to.

This week Rina, Lauren and season one guest Gemma Sherlock, interview trained psychotherapist Emmett de Monterey on his extraordinary life and memoir ‘Go The Way Your Blood Beats.’

Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at 18 months old, Emmett was raised by loving, accepting and liberal parents and yet he grappled for a long time with accepting his own identity. His feelings towards his disability, coupled with the realisation that he was gay made his early adolescence a difficult time in his life. This was further compounded by becoming a media sensation and ‘charity poster child’ for a ground-breaking gait surgery in the US.

In this episode, Lauren and Rina talk with artist and comedian Miriam Elia about living with the uncertainty that comes with her son’s diagnosis of Leigh syndrome. They discuss Miriam’s unique parenting approach and the profound impact that this has had on her entire family's story.

In this episode Lauren and Rina discuss neurodiversity and how we want the world to evolve, with the team behind the play ‘Just be Normal’ - Connor Pearce and sister's Emma and Sophie Jackson. The conversation includes a beautiful monologue performance from the play by Sophie, as well as each guest sharing their own personal experiences and their hopes and wishes for a more accepting and accessible world.

In this episode, Rina and Lauren talk with Jazz Manley about her experience of searching for answers and a diagnosis for her son Max. Jazz is very open about her own vulnerability and mental health struggles. She discusses her son’s difficult birth and the challenges she faced when he was young, when her concerns surrounding her son were not shared by others and she felt unheard.

In the first episode of our new series Lauren and Rina speak to performer and writer Bryony Kimmings. Bryony's son Frank is autistic and two years ago, she was also diagnosed with ADHD. They talk about Bryony’s parenting approach, discovering your own neurodiversity and how to balance a neurodiverse family with sometimes conflicting needs and wants. With her characteristic candour and wicked humour, Bryony describes how much she has learnt about herself and in doing so, how she has become a better parent to Frank as she drives to create their own neurodivergent utopia in their crumbling old country home.