Elsie’s grandson by marriage Chris was born with Cerebral Palsy, her husband Ken and her friend Sydney Banks were both diagnosed with cancer. What they all shared was an understanding that they were more than the limitations of their body. That there is an essential nature within us all that doesn’t get sick and is always vibrant.

In the fourth of our ‘Stories of Hope’ Elsie describes how witnessing this connected her more deeply to her own essential nature and allowed her to see the wellbeing in others. She encourages us as a parent, spouse or relative to look beyond the diagnosis, towards love, to what’s right rather than what’s so-called wrong, and consider that we are more than our bodies.

Elsie has been an internationally recognised trainer and consultant for over four decades. She is an advisor to the Almond Tree Foundation.