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Message in the Middle: Midlife Women, Reinvention & Personal Growth
Message in the Middle is a podcast for women navigating the challenges, transitions, and reinventions that often come with midlife.
Hosted by Marianne DeMello-Smith, each episode explores the messy, meaningful moments that shape who we become. Through honest conversations with experts, authors, thought leaders, and everyday women, you'll discover practical insights, inspiring stories, and new perspectives on what it means to grow through life's most difficult seasons.
Whether you're facing a career change, caregiving responsibilities, health challenges, grief, relationship shifts, menopause, identity changes, or simply wondering what's next, Message in the Middle offers encouragement, wisdom, and real-world strategies to help you move forward with greater confidence and purpose.
Together, we'll explore resilience, personal growth, self-discovery, emotional well-being, and the power of turning life's messes into meaningful midlife messages.
Because midlife isn't the end of your story. It may just be the beginning of your next chapter.
Message in the Middle: Midlife Women, Reinvention & Personal Growth
Stronger Than the Storm: Felicity Ashley on Resilience, Cancer, and Courage
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When life throws storms our way, we often think we’re at our breaking point. But what if the storm is the very place, we discover our truest, strongest selves?
In this episode of Message in the Middle, I sit down with Felicity Ashley, adventurer, mother of three, cancer survivor, former corporate marketer, and motivational speaker, to explore resilience, courage, and the power of saying yes to impossible dreams.
Felicity’s story is extraordinary. She set out with three other moms to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic, facing storms, broken equipment, and relentless sleep-deprived nights. What she didn’t know was that she was rowing while living with stage 3 bowel cancer. The strength she unearthed mid-ocean would become the anchor she leaned on through diagnosis, chemotherapy, surgery, and recovery.
In this conversation, Felicity shares:
✨ How ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things
✨ The mindset shifts that transform fear into fuel
✨ What resilience really looks like when life changes in an instant
✨ The role of community, support, and daily habits in surviving and thriving
✨ Tactical advice for listeners navigating their own storms
Her memoir, Stronger Than the Storm, is a raw and inspiring reminder that our greatest strength often surfaces in our hardest battles.
If you’ve ever doubted your own resilience, this episode will give you hope, perspective, and practical steps to face your own challenges head-on.
Connect with Felicity:
- Website: https://www.felicityashley.com
- Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1068489103
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felicityashley
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felicityashleyspeaker/
Connect with Marianne:
- Website: Message In The Middle with Marianne
- Message In the Middle Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/422430469323847/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MessageInTheMiddle/playlists
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-demello-smith-678b9966
- Email: Contact | Message In The Middle with Marianne
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