IWD Sea Swim Mini Series - Ep 6 Jessica Hepburn

Jessica Hepburn is an award-winning author, arts producer and adventure activist who inspires people to live big and bravely when life doesn't go to plan. In 2022, she became the first women in the world to achieve the "Sea, Street and Summit Challenge, swimming the Channel, running the London Marathon and summiting Mount Everest.  Her books have included “The Pursuit of Motherhood and “21 Miles Swimming in Search of Motherhood” and she's soon to publish her third book “Save Me From the Waves”, which is coming out on the 7th of March.

In this episode Jessica shares the story of how she has managed her personal struggles with infertility and heartbreak by turning to adventure activities. We discuss her involvement with the International Women's Day Sea Swim in Brighton and she emphasises the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone and trying new things, even if they seem daunting at first.

This episode is the last episode in a 6 part mini series in collaboration with PinkNicky Blog in support of the IWD Sea Swim 2024. Each episode is 10 -15 minutes long and shines a light on one of the women involved in their event, their reasons for doing so and the benefits they have personally experienced from living life  adventurously.

To find out more about Jessica visit:

www.jessicahepburn.com 

Instagram: @jessica_hepburn_

Substack: jessicahepburn.substack.com

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Transcript

The Everyday Adventure Podcast, hosted by Nicki Bass, featured Jessica Hepburn, an award-winning author, arts producer, and adventure activist. Hepburn shared her journey of overcoming personal struggles with infertility and heartbreak by turning to adventure activities. She became the first woman to complete the Sea Street and Summit Challenge, which involved swimming the English Channel, running the London Marathon, and summiting Mount Everest. Hepburn also discussed her involvement with the International Women's Day Sea Swim in Brighton, an event aimed at encouraging women to celebrate adventure and diversity. She emphasized the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone and trying new things, even if they seem daunting at first.

NICKI (00:00):

Hello and welcome to the Everyday Adventure Podcast. My name is Nicki Bass and I'll be bringing you thoughts, ideas, and stories from some incredible guests to hopefully inspire you to live more adventurously in your everyday lives. 

(00:25)

So today we are here for the sixth and final episode in our collaboration, our miniseries collaboration with the International Women's Day Sea Swim in Brighton. So this is a series we've been running with some of the key personalities from the IWD, and as some of you who are regular listeners will know, the reason behind this is because one, I think the aims of what Nicky Chisholm, the founder of the International Women's Day Sea Swim is trying to achieve is just brilliant in terms of getting women out in the water on International Women's Day and trying to get to 500 people, which I think we're pretty much there almost getting in the sea in Brighton International Women's Day, which very much links with the aims of this show overall, which is all about getting people to celebrate adventure, find ways to live adventurously in their everyday lives, and also celebrating that accessibility and diversity that exists as well. 

(01:21)

And trying to show that actually people who take part in adventures are from so many different backgrounds, have so many different diverse stories. So today, like I said, it's the sixth, the final episode, and I'm so thrilled to be able to welcome today's guest who is Jessica Hepburn. I'm actually slightly upset that I've only got 10 to 15 minutes to chat to her. I figured this conversation could probably go on for a while, but I'd give you a little bit of a background to Jessica and you'll get a sense why. So Jessica is an award-winning author and arts producer and an adventure activist who inspires people to live big and bravely when life doesn't go to plan. In 2022, she became the first women in the world to achieve the Sea Street and Summit Challenge, was swimming, swimming the channel, running the London Marathon and summiting Mount Everest. And I think we can probably agree that achieving any one of those on their own is a huge achievement. So to have achieved all three is just incredible. Her books have included “The Pursuit of Motherhood and “21 Miles Swimming in Search of Motherhood”, and she's soon to publish her third book “Save Me From the Waves”, which is coming out on the 7th of March. So this is perfectly time for the podcast as well. So Jessica, it is such a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining me. I would love to start just to find out what is it that inspired you to, first of all, to be involved with the International Women's Day cwi? How did that connection come about and why is it such an important event for you? 

JESSICA (03:28):

Well, that connection came about because I went to the Adventure Mind Festival in December that's run by the amazing, I dunno if she'd called herself an adventure activist. So that's why I call myself. I sort of made that up. But Belinda Kirk, who founded Explorers Connect, which is one of the first big social media communities for adventure, and Nikki, who is the force of nature behind the International Women's Day swim, got up at the conference and talked about what she was doing and I just loved her energy immediately. I loved her pinkness as she's called Pink Nicky. And I reached out to her and said I wanted to work together in some way. And she then told me that she was organising this big international Women's Day swim on Saturday the 9th of March. And as you said, my new book, my third book, which is called Saved Me from the Waves, comes out on the 7th of March, well book day. So it just felt like a perfect combination. So I am delighted to be one of the ambassadors to the event. 

NICKI (04:44):

Amazing. And yeah, I think that's certainly something that's come through from all the people I've spoken to. Something about Nickys energy and how she gets a hold of things is incredible. I'd love to know. And 

JESSICA (04:56):

Actually just to say on that, yes, she told me that she organised the swim for the first time last year and she got 250 people without even really shying. And then this year her ambition was 500 and I think we're very nearly there now. It's amazing. 

NICKI (05:11):

Amazing. It's really incredible. So just backtracking a little bit about that because obviously in the intro I mentioned your incredible adventurous achievements and I just wondered what was it that inspired you to become involved or take up adventure activity to take on these adventures, and particularly around the swimming as well. Where did that come from? 

JESSICA (05:40):

Well, I have a slightly cheeky answer to this, which is a lot of pain, but I think I'm not the first middle-aged woman to exercise her way out of heartbreak, which is essentially what I did or adventure my way out of heartbreak. But you alluded to the titles of my previous book, the Word Motherhood as in my first two books. And basically my partner and I were diagnosed with unexplained infertility in my mid thirties, and we went through a decade long struggle to conceive that involved 11 rounds of unsuccessful IVF and multiple miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. And then on top of all that we ended up splitting up. And that is all the pain. And I just needed to do something different with my life. And what is sort of extraordinary to me and everyone who knows me is that I am the most son, sporty person. 

(06:33)

I describe myself as an unlikely athlete. I was the arty one, not the sporty one for most of my career. I've worked in theatre, I ran a big theatre in London called The Lyric Hammersmith for a decade, obviously now I'm a writer, creative writer. So I really only came to this in middle life, but certainly I needed to do something different and I certainly have, and it has changed everything for me. So that's one of the reasons why I describe, I call myself an adventure activist because an activist in the power of adventure to change your life for the better. 

NICKI (07:11):

It's so interesting, isn't it? I mean, there's so many different things I think I could pick up just in that and to be able to condense such, I guess, a big story and such, and I would imagine that has developed over a number of years into a short two minute summary is a challenge in itself. But I think there are so many touch points within what you said that so many people listening will be able to relate to, whether it is the fertility, your experience with fertility and the journey for want of a better word that you've been on with that or the looking for something within our lives that gives us a sense of meaning and purpose. I think when other things maybe seen to be falling apart. And I think there's something very powerful in terms of adventures, whether they're small adventures, whether they're big adventures. 

(08:08)

And then I think that the final point that you make around one of the barriers, one of the common barriers that I know people experience in terms of getting started with any sort of adventure is not seeing themselves as that thing. So whether it's I'm not a runner or I'm not athletic, I'm not sporty, I'm not musical, whatever is the adventure they want to get involved in. And that can become a way of stopping ourselves. It's protective because it's designed to not push us outside of the tribe or risk failure or shame, but it's also so limiting in terms of what's possible. And I think what's so inspiring about what you've done and taken and created is actually it's opened up possibility as opposed to closing that down. And I guess with the sea swimming aspect of it, I noticed that's a theme within your books as well. How did you come to sea swimming? How did that become a sort of an anchor for you? 

JESSICA (09:11):

So I did all actually start with the sea and swimming the channel, which I sort of describe as Part C, chapter three part midlife crisis because I did actually enjoy swimming as a child, although I wasn't very good at it. I couldn't swim the crawl. And basically there was an occasion where I didn't get into the school swimming gala. I was always the last to be picked for any sports team and didn't get into this gala. And I was sort of consoling my disappointed dad. And I said to him, it's okay dad, but one day I'm going to swim the channel instead. And I think at the time in sort of 1970s eighties Britain channel swimmers made headline mu and I wanted to make him proud. And then I just didn't think about it again for 30 years. Literally never done more than a few laps of breaststroke in my local pool. And then I just woke up one day after my 11th round of unsuccessful IVF. I'd lost a decade of my life to Project Baby and I thought I'm going to do something different. And I just went back to this kind of childhood idea. And my dad had recently died as well, but I knew, I had no idea what was involved. And it was the start of what became this huge journey which changed my life basically. 

NICKI (10:30):

Gosh, that's so incredible, isn't it? Just that, like you said, how I often think it's really interesting how our childhood experiences as well, we sort of can go back and go, I wonder what if I wonder what if I hadn't had that experience or it had turned out differently, what might be possible too? I think again, it's something that we tend to hang on to in terms of defining us. And I love how you've just taken that and redefined yourself and I guess the possibilities available to you as well. I mean, sorry, carry on. 

JESSICA (11:02):

Yeah, sorry. And I wanted to just come back foot on that if I may. And on something you said earlier and this thing about being on sporty because, and I've been writing about this recently for a new spec article that I'm doing to promote the new book, but actually those labels that we put on ourselves as children are really unhelpful that I am the, and I am the arty one because actually what I realised is that I'm actually good at some sport. I'm really good at endurance sports. I mean, it said at the beginning what I've achieved, I am really good mentally, really, really strong. And I actually think that's also proven by the fact that I went through all that IV left. And so it's about finding, it's about having the courage to get out of your comfort zone and try and find the thing and for which for me was the arts, the theatre, that's my comfort zone. And try and find other things because there may be something out there that you are actually good at that you, you've always told yourself you're not. And I think that is what I discovered basically. 

NICKI (12:17):

Yeah, I mean that in a way leads itself perfectly into my final question, which I ask all of my guests, I think, which you've sort of almost encapsulated. So I'm just going to ask you if there's anything you want to add to it basically, which is if someone's listening to what you've just said, which I think is so powerful, children, we tend to be told we're good at a certain thing, but actually it's often around the skills which can be applied across so many different disciplines or so many different areas of our lives that we develop rather than the thing itself, the activity itself. And if someone's listening to this and they're thinking, gosh, I wonder what if that could be me who does that thing, which I've put in a box and buried and thought that I'm not this person. They're listening to this and think, maybe I might just give that a go. What advice would you give them? 

JESSICA (13:10):

Yeah, well, I have a hashtag what I call my personal hashtag, which is live big and brave. And you said at the beginning that that is my thing. I try and encourage people to live big and brave when life doesn't go to plan. And so what I would say is try and be brave. The advice that I would give to my younger self is be brave. I wish I'd been braver sooner. I would also say just focusing on the swimming. I've done a massive thing, which is swimming the English Channel, and there's nothing easy about that. But I think one of the reasons why so many people are coming to wild swimming now and why we've got 500 people nearly that we might have even hit the target now that have signed up for the International Women's Day swim is that I think the water is actually getting into the sea, into cold water, but just a few minutes. That is an adventure. It's a big adventure. It's hard. I still feel terrified when I will on Brighton Beach on the night of March, when I'm getting into my swimming costume and I'm walking across those pebbles, I am going to feel terrified. And that is the channelled swimmer speaking because every time I get in cold, open water, it's an adventure. And so I think be brave. Take a small step and see where it takes you, 

NICKI (14:38):

Jessica, that's absolutely amazing. I'm sure that has helped it act as a catalyst for so many people listening to this too. If people want to find out more about you, about your work, where can they go? 

JESSICA (14:52):

So my website is www.jessicahepburn.com. Do contact me through that. And then my social media channels of choice are substack at the moment. And do join my Substack mailing list and you'll get regular updates from me and also Instagram. 

NICKI (15:10):

Fantastic. And we'll pop all those links in the show notes as well so people can go and find you really easy. Jessica, it's been such a pleasure speaking to you. I could, like I said at the beginning, carry it on this conversation for a lot longer. But absolutely, thank you again so much for your time and very best of luck with the Sea Swim on the 9th of March as well. I hope it goes really well. 

JESSICA (15:29):

I need it. Thanks. 

NICKI (15:31):

Bye. 

JESSICA (15:32):

Bye.