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How Merry Gerri Found Her Life’s Purpose

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    Gerri McMahon was working a gruelling 70-hour week as a Producer in the high- pressure television industry in London when she sought relief for an array of ailments from alternative therapies.   “I would stagger into the clinic for a shiatsu or acupuncture or aromatherapy for my sore back, my allergies, my upset digestive system – all the result of my messed-up emotions and unbalanced lifestyle – and would walk out completely revived and renewed. It was miraculous! I was in awe of these healers.”   The crunch came when she was producing the popular Trisha show – Britain’s version of Jerry Springer – where vulnerable people were enticed to reveal their shameful secrets and relationship dramas in the name of entertainment.    “I made sure the guests, who often unleashed painful traumas, had a counselling session before they went home. But when the budget for counselling was cut, I couldn’t continue doing this any longer.”    After 10 years in the TV industry spanning her mid-20s to e
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There’s More Than One Type of Success Story. What’s Your Story?

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  People love stories about people. They especially love inspiring stories of triumph over adversity. Redemptive tales give us hope and the courage to keep striving.   This is my speciality because I believe  YOUR Story Matters.   I’m an experienced Journalist with a prolific career spanning 40 years writing for newspapers, magazines and online publications in Australia, the UK and Africa.    Over four exciting decades, I’ve written engaging features on a diverse range of subjects including health and psychology, community and global issues and travel adventures. My popular weekly newspaper columns,  Family Matters  and  Relationship Matters  kept my readers enthralled and entertained for more than a decade.     But for all the fascinating subjects I’ve embraced, I always return to the power of the heroic story.    Now, at my mature stage of life, I’ve decided to focus on writing  inspiring life stories about extraordinary people . So who qualifies as “extraordinary”?   In my encounter
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Abass Brings Joy Through African Music

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  This delightful feature was published in My Weekly magazine in March 2022,  telling the extraordinary success story of Abass Dodoo   When Master African drummer, Abass Dodoo remembers, he pauses in silence and chokes back the tears.    This was the defining moment in his childhood in Ghana that set the direction for his entire life, an extraordinary life of international travel and stardom.   “My grandmother had started teaching me drumbeats from the age of six. She saw talent in me. One day she took my hands and placed them in my uncle’s hands and said ‘I am giving you these hands to train in the drumming traditions of our ancestors. These hands will be your legacy in the future.’   “My uncle had the responsibility to mentor me as his protégé because the matriarch of our family had chosen me.”   Abass, now 51, was just 10 when this profound honour and heavy responsibility was bestowed on his young shoulders. His dreams of being a pilot were cast aside.   A shy and quiet boy, he knew
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