You've Got to Have Joy: Greg Johnston on Grief, Courage, and Team Evie

Reflective Rebels Podcast Season 2 Episode 11

https://youtu.be/tr8zE2NCXGs

Greg Johnston's favourite day of the week is Friday. Fish and chips, a film with the girls, easing into the weekend. The kind of simple, ordinary joy that doesn't need explaining. It took a lot to get there.

Greg and his wife Jill lost their daughter Evie in September 2015. She was six months old. In those six months she faced more than most of us will face in a lifetime, seventeen operations, a complex combination of cardiac and other conditions, six months in intensive care in Newcastle.

On the night Evie died, Greg and Jill sat in the room with her and made a decision. Her life was going to have a positive impact. Team Evie was born that night. It now supports around 10,000 families a year across Cumbria, Lancashire, and the North East -practical support, peer connection, and the kind of help that only comes from someone who has actually been there.

This is a conversation about grief and joy and what it looks like to keep choosing joy even when grief is part of the picture. It is also one of the most important conversations this podcast has had.

About Greg Johnston

Greg Johnston is the founder and CEO of Team Evie, a charity supporting families of critically ill children across Cumbria, Lancashire, and the North East. Find out more at www.teamevie.co.uk.

Support Team Evie

Team Evie relies entirely on donations and fundraising to keep doing what it does. If this episode has moved you, please consider making a donation or getting involved. Every contribution directly supports families going through the hardest thing www.teamevie.co.uk.

If you've been affected

If anything in this episode has brought something up for you - child loss, bereavement, health anxiety, or just the feeling that you're not coping as well as you think you should be - please don't sit with it alone. Team Evie's peer support service is at teamevie.co.uk. For mental health support, Mind are at mind.org.uk.

Listen and subscribe

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If this episode meant something to you, the best thing you can do is share it with one person you think needs to hear it.

Work with Ben

Ben Hickman is an ILM Level 7 qualified business coach based in Carlisle. If this conversation has made you think about your own life and what you're carrying, you can find out more about working with Ben 1:1 here.