Kristi McVee (00:01.496)
Hello and welcome back. I'm so excited this morning because I'm talking to Brooke McIntosh and I hope I said that right. Brooke, I watched you run around Australia and all I could keep thinking when I saw you running around Australia was, fuck that.
Brooke (00:11.626)
you
Brooke (00:19.05)
don't worry, don't worry. I was thinking much the same.
Kristi McVee (00:24.534)
Like honestly, every day and like I saw your blisters, I saw you and you like all of the things that you're going through and I'm thinking what makes you get up every morning and look, I've jumped ahead in the conversation. Let's get to that in a minute. But Brooke, tell the listeners like literally what, what the hell were you thinking when you decided to run around Australia? Like Brooke, honestly, you amazed me. Like, I just don't know how you did it day in, day out.
Brooke (00:35.529)
Good.
Brooke (00:44.252)
Okay.
Kristi McVee (00:53.996)
What drove you to like literally start running, like training and planning to run around Australia?
Brooke (01:00.617)
Yeah, I mean, I still don't even exactly know what I was thinking every single day. Every single day, literally the alarm would go off at 6am and it was like, fuck this, not again. But I still did it, I still got up and went just one more. For me, just one more became my lifeline in 2022. Just one more became my lifeline and it's how I live my life every single day moving forward now. It saved my life, it's why I ran around Australia and now I get to do what I get to do.
Kristi McVee (01:11.2)
Yeah.
Brooke (01:30.248)
And it's by taking just one more step, breath and day. And I believe us as humans, can overcome and achieve anything. And I'm absolutely living proof of that. So the whole run around Australia really stemmed from my own deepest pains. In August, 2022, I was going through the depths of suicidal ideation myself. And it was a very, really challenging time in my life. And this week leading up to August.
was when I was actually planning to take my own life and it just so happened in that week, I call it an absolute miracle now, but I was driving along the highway going 100 kilometers an hour and I got t-boned by a truck. Now, in that moment, I actually wanted to go, I wanted my time to end, but upon waking up and lying on the hospital bed, I realized that it wasn't my time and I realized that there's so much more to life, but I first had to choose courage myself.
and take just one more step. And lying on the hospital bed, I made a commitment to myself to do exactly that. I was like, okay, you're not okay. Everyone thinks you are okay. Because I was the woman who was great at pretending. I was great at masking. I was great at saying, I'm okay, I'm all good, or I'll be good, or nothing's wrong with me. How about you? And I was the woman always checking in on everyone else. But yeah, I was crumbling internally. So
Kristi McVee (02:49.144)
Yeah.
Brooke (02:56.809)
This moment in August, 2022, it just really sticks out for me as my massive turning point. And I was working in mining and construction at the time and I went back to site and it was so ironic that when I went back to site after my car accident, the day I went back to site, they had a toolbox meeting and in that toolbox meeting it was, are you okay? And I was like, Oh my God, are you kidding me right now?
Kristi McVee (03:14.99)
and
Kristi McVee (03:22.839)
No.
Brooke (03:24.43)
And I just remember listening to, God bless him, the safety rap, talking about, are you okay, day? And he's like, you know, it's okay not to be okay. Like make sure you check in on your mates, cause you never know what they're going through. And I'm sitting there like crumbling and squirming and anxiety riddled. And these, my internal dialogue was just horrendous. And I was listening to him and there was a pause.
And I just counted down from three and I was like, you know what? I'm not okay. And if I don't speak up right now, then I don't think I ever will be because this is the time and the place that I need to speak up. So I'm, I spoke up in that moment. I literally counted down from three. was like three, two, one. I was holding onto my seat and I was like, just speak. And my voice was shaking hard out, but I spoke and I shared about what happened on RNR and where I was at physically, but where I was more importantly at mentally. And what I seen was.
the ripple effect and after I shared my vulnerable share, after that, I literally had 20 blokes come up to me and say, thank you so much for being so courageous and vulnerable and sharing what's going on internally for you. I'm experiencing divorce. I'm experiencing financial hardship. I'm experiencing hardship with not seeing my kids. All of these different things. I've lost a friend to suicide that I was just like, what?
But it just started these conversations and it literally just come back to me having just one more conversation. So I went on and I was still working, driving the big dump trucks and every single morning I made the commitment to myself to check in on myself first in the mirror and change my own internal dialogue and change and changed my own mental fitness and focused really on cleaning that up. And then every day I committed to having just one more conversation with someone else on site.
and then checking in on them after I know and I can wholeheartedly say that I was okay. Would I then go in and check on someone else? So I started doing that and I just seen this ripple effect and I remember laying awake in my dung up at 2am it was one morning. Just couldn't sleep and I was like, this is so cool that I'm having these conversations and that I'm seeing this change in these blokey blokes on site. But how cool would it be to amplify that? And
Kristi McVee (05:14.882)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (05:20.493)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (05:42.638)
Hmm.
Brooke (05:44.231)
I don't know why, but this was literally in October 2022, so two months after my car accident, I was never a runner. I never said I'm going to run a marathon or anything. And that night I literally said to myself, I'm going to run from Pilbara to Perth. And I'm like, I don't even know if I can run 5k, so how the hell can I run 1600 kilometers?
Kristi McVee (05:56.354)
Yeah
Kristi McVee (06:04.878)
I know it's a long trip.
Brooke (06:09.904)
It's a long trip in a car. I've done the car trip maybe like five times. I've done the plane trip multiple times, but in a car, I hate driving it, let alone who am I to run it. But I just set my mind to it and I cleaned up my mental fitness and I focused on my training and I focused on my nutrition and I focused on my why. And my why was to prove that pain never gets a last say, that us as individuals, need to be more courageous and more vulnerable.
Kristi McVee (06:20.622)
Yeah.
Brooke (06:37.732)
And that's how we build connection with ourself and more importantly with our communities. And through that run that I did in August, 2022, 23, so a year on from my car accident, it was massive. And I called it impact to ignite impact to ignite our FIFO workers to speak up about their mental health. And I did that, but it was through that run that I realized that it wasn't just FIFO workers. wasn't just mining and construction. I was having conversation conversations with
truck drivers on the road, holiday makers on the road, emergency services on the road. And I was just like, what? Like everyone actually has these internal demons that no one wants to talk about. And then when I crossed the finish line in August, 2023, I was like, why am I stopping here? Like what's just one more state? And that's, that's when I was like, I'm going to go just one more state and see how far I can take this mission because
Kristi McVee (07:09.646)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (07:15.192)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (07:19.47)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (07:26.83)
What?
Brooke (07:35.15)
It's not something that just Western Australia suffers with, it's humans in general. And I truly believe that if we've got a heart, if we've got a brain and we're here on earth, we all have mental health, we all have mental fitness. But yeah, what are we doing every single day to help it? What are we doing every single day to make it better for ourselves? We shut up, we don't talk and we don't speak about our feelings. No, that's not what I believe. I'm like, well, if you want bigger biceps, you're going to bicep curl.
Kristi McVee (07:55.704)
Yeah.
Brooke (08:05.094)
So if you want a stronger mind, you've got to do your mental fitness reps. And that starts by talking and by being courageous enough to share. that's, and that's really what drove me for the whole way around Australia. Every single morning I was just like, never gets the last say. It doesn't matter how much I'm physically hurting right now. It doesn't matter how much I'm mentally hurting right now. Like there's worse, there's people out there who are on the edge and I'm doing it for those guys.
Kristi McVee (08:05.154)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (08:12.088)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (08:29.896)
my gosh. Well, let me just tell you that I think I understand where you're where you're coming from. when you're finding like you're up at 2am and you get this idea and you're like, where the fuck did that come from? Because it's not from you. It's from a higher power in my mind. It's like from the universe going, this is what you need next. And you just followed the path and look at you go right. But I
can't believe, well, I can believe because I've worked in, I worked in emergency services, the blokes there and the women there, you know, we didn't share what was going on for us. And I'm like you, I would be like checking in on I knew this guy was having trouble in his marriage or this person was struggling with something at the moment or their kids were going through something. And so, you know, those are the people who need us to check in on them, but then we don't check in on ourselves. And
Brooke (09:17.188)
.
Kristi McVee (09:22.176)
And I mean, I'm not sure how much of you know, but I, you know, I left the police with PTSD. had severe anxiety. I had depression within three years of starting in the police. So, you know, I remember and you're just one more, you know, slogan, you know, belief is kind of like when I was going through the pits of it. I, when you were talking about, was like, that feels like me. Like when I was going through PTSD and I was just like, it would be better off if I wasn't here. And.
Brooke (09:46.437)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (09:51.247)
I just don't want to deal with this anymore. And I just can't do this anymore. But then, you know, like in the back of my mind, because I had enough, I don't know, I had enough knowledge and wisdom about, you know, mental health, that I was just like, this is just a moment. This is just it will get better. Like, knowing that, you know,
Brooke (10:05.404)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (10:09.79)
it is about persistence, is about resilience, it is about toughness, it is about reminding yourself because it does get better eventually and a lot of young people especially but even us any age we if you don't have that if you don't have that knowledge and belief you think that it won't and so that's when people take you know take the ultimate
Brooke (10:28.384)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (10:32.18)
you know, next step and so Just One More is so beautifully, it's perfect if you ask me because Just One More is just one more step, just one more day, just one more conversation, it's just beautiful.
Brooke (10:44.093)
Yeah, exactly that. And for the ones who are literally like right on the edge, I've beaten it. And honestly can say I'm a massive survivor and I'm so grateful I'm still here because now I get to be a voice for those on the edge who haven't yet maybe found their courage to speak up. But when you're on the edge, you literally feel like you don't belong.
You literally feel like the world's better off without you. You literally feel like there's no other way out of this pain, this misery when in actual fact there is. And this is why I believe it's so important to have courageous, vulnerable conversations because we didn't, we're not, you're not automatically given PTSD like this. It's accumulation of small little traumatic events throughout our lives that build up, build up, build up.
Kristi McVee (11:12.632)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (11:30.774)
Yes.
Brooke (11:32.342)
Or there could be a massive big T for example, like my massive car accident. Me driving next to trucks is like, I just don't really vibe with that. I still do it now, but me running next to trucks, that helped me combat that PTSD and that fear. But also I wasn't born with being scared of trucks. It was a massive trauma event that happened in my life. I think, especially in emergency services, I'm sorry, but...
Kristi McVee (11:36.236)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (11:43.01)
you
Yeah.
Brooke (12:00.523)
You deal with so much stuff on the frontline stuff. But then where do you go after that? And who helps you after that? Yes, there might be EAP places in or support systems in place, but it's
Kristi McVee (12:13.474)
Yeah, you got to put your hand up to go and use them. Otherwise, you're just dealing with it on your own, sadly. And I think it's the same with in mining and all of these, you know, really where people ask it to be vulnerable, or maybe vulnerability isn't shown often enough. You know, in my case, everyone around me was like, just go get drunk. Let's just go get drunk.
Brooke (12:37.795)
it's not the answer. Like I became addicted in that time, I became addicted to drugs and alcohol because that's what I've seen throughout my life. My mom was working five-fold since I was 12 years old and that's when I fully took on the responsibility to help raise my younger siblings. And I took on everyone else's responsibility as my own. And therefore all my own needs become last. And I was like, no, I've got to show up for everyone else, got to provide for everyone else, got to get my younger siblings to school, mom's away, I'll run the household right now.
And then my mum would be away, but then when she would come home, she would be like, FIFO is amazing, it's the best escape for me. And then she would drink two bottles of Vodka a night and I would have to pick her up and put her to bed. So then naturally, as I was growing up, I'm almost 30 now, but in my teens and early twenties, I became addicted to drugs and alcohol. Cause I didn't, I never grew up knowing what my feelings were. I never grew up knowing that it was okay to cry or was it okay to be sad? It was okay to have a down day. It was like, no, where's the vodka? We don't like this stuff.
Kristi McVee (13:25.048)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (13:36.352)
Yeah, let's not feel it.
Brooke (13:38.327)
Let's not feel it. And I'm like, no, if you want to heal it, you have to feel it. And if you're not courageous enough to feel it, well, you're never truly going to heal it.
Kristi McVee (13:42.806)
Exactly.
Kristi McVee (13:47.694)
Yeah, and it does take an immense amount of courage to go through. Like, and this is the thing everyone has down days everyone has at trauma, trauma and trap. My daughter actually she's just about to turn 18. And she said, I overheard her telling her boyfriend that you know, trauma actually makes you stronger. And I was like, and she goes, everyone needs stuff bad stuff to happen because it makes you stronger. And I was like,
Well, we don't want bad stuff to happen at the hands of other people if we can help it, right? Because I told obviously talking, I'm talking prevention education, and I don't want people to go through that type of trauma. But I understood what she was trying to say. She was trying to talk about the fact that if we don't go through anything, and we're protected from everything, we actually don't build up mental resilience, right? We don't we can't get through anything on our own, because we're used to having someone protect us or or
Brooke (14:18.099)
Yes, 100%.
Kristi McVee (14:39.662)
or not have to deal with it. So this it's kind of like a catch 22. We don't want it to happen. But also we do want certain things to happen because we need that resilience because if you hadn't have gone through the accident and everything like that, you wouldn't be here today. And you wouldn't have had that mental resilience to run around Australia.
Brooke (14:52.961)
Oh, definitely not, definitely not. And also on the flip side of that, if I knew some of these techniques that I now know, or if I knew about courage and that it's actually courageous to use your voice and to speak up and say no, when things aren't in alignment or things feel off, my God, it would have saved me a world when I hurt. But also I wouldn't be the woman that I am today. it's like, but it comes back down to it's like, yeah, catch 22, but it comes back down to choosing courage to heal from the trauma.
Kristi McVee (15:16.67)
Exactly. It's a cat's triniton.
Brooke (15:24.748)
and then move forward with it because I also believe that if we never heal from the trauma, we become like a brick wall and no one can hug nor love a brick wall when your walls are up so high and you're not allowing anyone to come in or anyone to see you for all that you are, you're never really gonna feel the depths of the love that everyone is worthy of.
Kristi McVee (15:46.274)
Hmm. that one hit hard. Sorry. Because I'm a bit of a wall at times. It's like a protection mechanism from my childhood, which my mom was an alcoholic, my dad was an alcoholic and all of the things that went on with that. And so you know, like you learn to just
Brooke (15:50.273)
it's
Brooke (15:56.124)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (16:03.04)
lift your chin up, get on with it. No one, no one cares about you not being okay. So just get off. You know, so it is it's a really tough one because you have to face those things you have to face them realize that they weren't okay. That you know, it's not okay that what happened to you. Yeah, you can forgive those people because maybe they only did what they knew. But at the same time, you have to forgive yourself for not knowing better and doing like what
Brooke (16:08.52)
Yeah
Kristi McVee (16:28.386)
Well, you know, as a child, can't do anything else. So you just had to survive.
Brooke (16:31.87)
Yeah. Yeah. And I say this now, I'm like, okay, well, now that you know what you know, move with love and wisdom and build your fucking backbone. So like move with love, like through life with love for yourself and love for others and wisdom from your trauma and your learnings that you got mixing together and build your backbone so no one can fuck you over. No one can hurt you again. And but then you're not completely closed off to the world and all the good that is out there.
Kristi McVee (16:58.272)
Yeah, it's a fine line, right? I think...
With regards to your mission, guess, you you started off running from the Pilbara to Perth, which is massive. that's, you know, I was thinking about what I've done in my my 45 years and I was thinking, OK, when I was 15 and you'll know where I'm talking about, I rode a horse from Cossack to Port Hedland, 206 kilometers, right? It was a long way, but my horse did most of the work. So I walked most of the I walked a bit where my arse got sore, right?
Brooke (17:23.649)
Yes.
Brooke (17:28.257)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (17:28.974)
And then I walked the Cape to Cape down here in the Southwest and that was 135 kilometers in five days. I lost five toenails. My shoes didn't fit properly. I was very underprepared. you know, the fact is, is you ran 14,000 kilometers, 14,000 kilometers people. ran around Australia.
Brooke (17:37.397)
you
Brooke (17:43.215)
Okay.
Kristi McVee (17:50.862)
I remember there was a part where you got some sort of like massage or like did, did you, Oh no, you had an ice bath on the side of the road. You were having ice baths on the side of the road and you, you know, people, yeah, it was just phenomenal. Who was your support crew in that whole process? Cause you obviously had to have one.
Brooke (17:59.072)
Yeah, every day.
you
Brooke (18:11.297)
Yeah, I did. And I was talking to a girlfriend yesterday about the whole support crew, teammates and all of that stuff. And it's just so funny because at the start, like when I was planning for this run, I had one support crew commit for the whole six months. And I was like, yes, this is going to make the mission a little bit easier because your team is everything and everyone and who is around you is everything. Right. And I remember before like two weeks.
before March 2nd when I was taking off on the start line, this team member come to me and he's like, so look, I can only do three months on the road with you. And I was like, what? I was like, what do you mean? So Rowan only ended up doing roughly about two months, but I got dropped that news like two weeks before.
Kristi McVee (18:48.109)
my gosh.
Kristi McVee (18:59.555)
Whoa.
Brooke (19:00.058)
And I had sponsorships pull out two weeks before. I had the caravan taken us taken away from us two weeks before. So literally in two weeks to the start line, I had to organize a brand new car, a brand new caravan to get wrapped and more teammates on the ground. And the way that it happened was no coincidence. Bloody random as all hell. The universe providing what I needed at the time. But I had one of my coaches. She's still my coach to this day. One of my coaches, one of her best friends. She was in
She was an ex-defense force and she's like, yeah, I've got time up my sleeve. I'd love to come out. So she ended up coming out and tag teaming with Rowan. So she came out for maybe about six weeks and then there was an eight week block that she couldn't do. Now I was running around Australia for almost seven months. So there was an eight week block that she couldn't do and this is so bizarre, but I was running on the nullable.
Kristi McVee (19:32.492)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (19:40.696)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (19:52.205)
Yeah.
Brooke (19:52.666)
And one of my friends Cam drove past me and he seen me and he ran down his window. he done a U-turn came back and he had two other guys in the car with him as well. So we get chatting on the side of the road in the middle of the Nullarbor, absolute nothing else around. And one of his mates was named Dan and Dan was meant to go back five foot in a week's time. And I said to Dan, we just clicked off like talking about mining, what it was like, what his mental health was like, like what his passions are in life.
Kristi McVee (20:07.628)
Yeah.
Brooke (20:21.203)
And then a week later, I was like, just like bullet and message him. A week later, I messaged Dan. I'd met him for 20 minutes on the side of the road in the middle of the Nullarbor. And I said, Hey, Dan, you want to come out and help support me? And he's like, I'm so down. So I ended up flying Dan out in the middle of nowhere in Victoria. was, and he helped me get from Victoria all the way to the, all the way to the Northern territory almost. And
Kristi McVee (20:38.153)
Mwah.
Brooke (20:49.225)
So it was literally just the power of community and people like putting their hands up and coming out for two, three weeks at a time. And honestly, like I just had to, I really just had to deal with it and make it what it was. And I ended up flying another lady called Sue's out and she joined us for about three months. And Grace came out and helped us. Now she was my photographer. She was meant to be there as my photographer and content creator. She ended up doing that. Plus also learning how to drive a manual and tow a caravan in the space of one day.
I'm not sure if you know of Gibb River, a massive... Yeah, so I threw her another challenge and I was like, hey, we're going off-road because I just want more adventure and more of a challenge because why not? She'd never driven a caravan, never driven a stick before and now I've got her towing the caravan while I'm running on the Gibb River road and she's having to tow it across hundreds of kilometres of corrugation.
Kristi McVee (21:23.872)
Yes, I've been on the Give River, yes.
Kristi McVee (21:32.622)
my gosh.
Kristi McVee (21:44.238)
Geez, you would have been so, I was about to say, when I went on the Gib River, there was like literally no bitumen and mostly red dirt and corrugation. So I know they've bitumized a little bit more, but honestly, you must've been just covered in red dirt by the end of it. Cause trucks going past, cars going past. Were people like slowing down and like seriously staring at you as they went past or what?
Brooke (22:00.948)
yeah, yeah. It was so much fun. It was so much fun.
Brooke (22:11.618)
Yeah, some people would slow down very courtesy of them, but then others would just keep zooming past. But we had so many families on that section specifically just follow us continuously. And they're like, we drove past you two days ago and it took you two days to get to this point. It's so cool to see you here. And then it would just spark the conversation again about what I was doing running around Australia to break the stigma around mental health and suicide prevention. But what was really cool was we would go into that conversation.
Kristi McVee (22:20.727)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (22:28.491)
Brooke (22:40.878)
then their kids would join in on that conversation and whenever I would get messages afterwards of like the kids would still remember that moment or if the kids drove past like a blue tree they're like remember that girl or if they see another runner they're like remember that girl who and then that just starts a conversation about mental health which was yeah really cool and special.
Kristi McVee (22:42.888)
That's so amazing.
Kristi McVee (22:50.114)
they will.
Kristi McVee (22:54.135)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (23:02.218)
I just think as a child seeing someone and look it just sparks that that idea that as humans we are capable of anything like for young people especially young kids to see that kind of
I don't know, that courage, that strength, that perseverance, you know, to see someone else do it, it means you can believe in yourself and see it for yourself. You know, I used to say, especially when I saw families, you know, that were dealing with generational trauma and abuse in their family or, you know, like that it was cultural for that, that culture or that whole town didn't have much.
Brooke (23:27.022)
Kristi McVee (23:41.43)
you know, to look forward to because the town had broken down or whatever. I would always think it just takes one person in that.
in that space, that one person to to get out of, not to get out to to show them that if you can't see it, you can't be it. Right. So it just takes one person to get out of like, to go and make something on the of themselves to go and do something courageous, like run around Australia, it just takes one person that you know, to show you that it's possible. And so, you know, those kids saw you doing it, and they saw something that was seems impossible being done. And so, yeah, it's going to have an impact.
Brooke (23:58.215)
Yeah.
Brooke (24:10.577)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (24:18.544)
for their life.
Brooke (24:20.038)
Lae-Anne yeah, 100%. And it's so true. I've this really cool visual and I'm absolutely going to recreate it. But it was a whole line of matchsticks lined up and every matchstick was on fire and then you removed one matchstick back and then the fire stopped. And that's literally how we can be courageous human beings and break the cycles.
Kristi McVee (24:34.316)
Yeah, exactly.
Kristi McVee (24:39.425)
Yeah.
Brooke (24:41.499)
I don't know, people like to call it the black sheep or whatever. And if that's what people call it, the black sheep of the family. Well, I'm absolutely that because I love to question. I love to lead with curiosity and be courageous. I was never always like this. This only started happening when I had that car accident. And now my family's just like, my God, she's just on another level. But now they're coming to me and asking how they do things. I'm. Yeah, and I was doing a talk in Geraldton last week.
Kristi McVee (24:46.766)
Thank
Kristi McVee (24:51.02)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (24:59.182)
Yeah, you're helping them change.
Brooke (25:11.141)
And one of the teachers there, he asked me, were doing question and answer at the end. And it was the most coolest thing that I'd ever been asked. She asked me what my dad thought of the rhyme and what he said to me when I crossed the finish line. And I shared what he said. And he said something that probably no one wants to hear after they run 14,000 kilometers. It's not what I wanted to hear, but it's everything I needed to hear. And
Kristi McVee (25:38.52)
Right.
Brooke (25:39.854)
It just, it's solidified so much more about me that we are a movement together. We are a collective and it's so easy to get, I guess, caught up in the more, more, more, or caught up in our own self and our own ego that sometimes we forget about the we component. So I literally finished running 14,000 kilometers around Australia. It's been 204 days running across the finish line and
Kristi McVee (25:45.966)
Mmm.
Brooke (26:05.829)
I'm on a high vibe, I'm singing, we're all in this together from High School Musical. It's like totally my jam. And it's what this mission is all about. And I'm seeing hundreds of people at the finish line run through the banner and I'm hugging everyone and I'm jumping and I'm partying and then I see my family. And I just, my heart just sank because when I was out there, I missed 12 of my siblings birthday, my siblings and my nephew's birthdays. I missed countless of celebrations together.
Kristi McVee (26:10.198)
Hahaha
Kristi McVee (26:16.738)
Yeah.
Brooke (26:35.004)
and moments and memories. And when I hugged my dad, I hugged him so tight. It was so cool. And I just started bursting into tears. Now, my dad didn't go in to say, I'm so proud of you, kiddo. What I felt like I wanted to hear. My dad went in to say, this is so incredible, but make your mark. This is not about you. This is about us. This is about we. Get up on stage and bring it home, baby girl.
And it just gave me goosebumps because I was like, it's not about me, it's about us. But he really solidified it for me. He really brought me back down to earth and he really grounded me and helped me remind me of my life. Now, I got up on stage, did a spill, but three days after the run, I'm driving along and I'm like, I just want to call my dad. So I call my dad and
Kristi McVee (27:15.768)
Yeah.
Brooke (27:33.753)
I'm like, Hey dad, how are you going? In my chirpy happy upbeat voice. And I didn't get the same response. My dad was like, Hey, I'm not doing too well. And like even saying this now, it just made me choke because my dad had never said anything like that before.
Kristi McVee (27:54.594)
yeah
Brooke (27:56.143)
But I helped him feel seen. I helped him feel heard and I've helped him feel, I guess, courageous enough to tell me that he wasn't doing okay. And we had the most beautiful, wholesome conversation about the challenges that he's faced in his whole life. And he, he just felt safe enough to open up to me. And I was like, wow, I was taken back for a moment, but then I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. Cause this is.
Kristi McVee (28:13.261)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (28:18.008)
Yeah.
Brooke (28:26.371)
I guess the generational stuff that we get to break and that I'm breaking through this.
Kristi McVee (28:29.42)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Could you imagine, I mean, like, think about it from the perspective and, you know, I work in child sexual abuse prevention and I work in like, you know, helping victim survivors, you know, speak up if they want to or to get help if they want to. And so for me personally, like hearing that
I can just imagine your dad's the one who thinks he has to be the strong one. He has to be, everyone has to rely on him. He's never thought he could say anything because no one's shown him that it's safe to say something. And that's how victims of violence feel too. Like they might've tried to say something when they were a kid and they were shut down or all the adults around them never showed them that it's okay to be vulnerable.
Brooke (29:07.789)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (29:18.286)
And then you get to adulthood and here we are trying to, like this thing inside of you is so loud and angry and wants to be heard, it wants to be seen and wants to be healed. And so, you know, like the average length of time or average time between, you know, abuse and first disclosure for sexual abuse survivors is around 24 years.
24 years of pain, hurt, suffering, know, feeling like you did something wrong and you weren't, you know, like no one wants to hear what you went through and but that's not really the truth. Like we all want to be heard, seen and so like to get back to what your dad was able to do, like that's massive, huge.
Brooke (29:41.737)
Yeah.
Brooke (30:01.712)
Yeah, yeah. And as I, you just said 24 years and that hit hits a nail on the head because I was at when a car accident happened, I was 26 years old. And for 24 years, I was carrying the story when I was sexually assaulted when I was two. And then it happened again when I was 14. And I was carrying those stories, the weight of
that hurt of that pain of that grief inside of me for that long. And then when the car accident happened, I said enough's enough. I'm carrying these stories. It's making me feel depressed. It's making me feel anxiety riddled. I can't talk about it. Like I'm tired of hiding. I'm tired of being insecure. I'm tired of not using my voice. And when that car accident happened, I was just like, just have courage. And what I realized through this whole journey is that
Kristi McVee (30:46.926)
Yeah.
Brooke (30:55.467)
There was a period where I did become angry at my parents. Angry at my parents for, I guess, not listening to me, not holding me, not hearing me, not seeing me. And then I was like, you know what? My parents are just doing the best that they possibly can as well. And when I flipped it that way, I actually started to have so much more love, more curiosity, more gratitude and more understanding because I realized my parents are just doing the best they can. They don't know what they don't know.
Kristi McVee (31:24.878)
Yeah.
Brooke (31:24.929)
And they've also got their own stories that they're holding onto. And so there's some stories that I share with my parents, but I share them when I'm ready to, not from a space of help me, hold me, see me. I share them when I'm ready to, because I also know that they have baggage, they have stories that they've never told anyone. And this moment with my dad was the first moment where he opened it up about one of his best mates dying by suicide. And I was like,
Kristi McVee (31:28.077)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (31:44.194)
Yeah.
Brooke (31:55.265)
I'd never known that and I'm almost 30. I'd never known that about my dad. yeah, so it's just amazing what happens when you focus on yourself first and healing yourself first and that you're like, okay, my parents have stuff too. It's not all their fault, but now I know better. Let's do better.
Kristi McVee (32:11.798)
Yeah, it's a level of empathy and compassion that you didn't realize. You know, like I'm in the same boat, you know, like there was a level of anger around my parents and, you know, and being, you know, them being alcoholics and drugs and them not actually dealing with their crap and them treating me like I was the adult and like
I was a parentified daughter. So I was the adult in the house and you know, the level of you know, neglect and abuse that went on and all of that stuff. I was angry for such a long time. And then I like you, when you do that, you know, work and you heal yourself and you start healing yourself and you realize, wow, they've just got so much baggage that they have not dealt with and no one spoke about. And I guess from our perspective is or my perspective is like,
Brooke (32:52.283)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (32:58.122)
Okay, we get to change what happens for our kids and the next generation. And hopefully we won't leave. Again, my daughter's like, you need trauma to be like resilient. Okay, good, great. But we want to own up for what we didn't know. And we want to own up and help heal what we can where we can. And you know, it's no like who wants to pass it down.
Brooke (33:02.581)
Yeah.
Brooke (33:12.759)
Yeah.
Brooke (33:16.566)
Yeah, and you don't want to pass that down either. Like you want to pass down the good. Yeah, I think it's so ironic that my partner, he's got two beautiful kids and Indy and Oli. Indy triggers me, but triggers me in a good way. I'm like, but because I know what I know now, I will never shut her down. And anyone who tries to shut her down, I protect her straight away. I'm like, nah, don't say that. Don't talk like that. You're not doing that. No, because
Kristi McVee (33:30.072)
Haha, she's eerie.
Kristi McVee (33:36.886)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (33:40.46)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Brooke (33:45.226)
I know what it's like to come back after years of shutdown and I'm like, well, if I can help her not have to go through that, I'm going to protect her like that. But also I'm going to show her how to stand up for herself.
Kristi McVee (33:48.483)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (33:53.239)
Bye.
Yeah, yeah. And you know what? You are going to be like the fiercest, most loyal, like stepmom, mom, auntie, anything because you're like, no, we do not treat kids like this. We do not shut them down. We give them a voice. I'm the same like my I used to have arguments with my husband all the time, years gone by when he he didn't understand like
Brooke (34:07.542)
Thank you.
Kristi McVee (34:15.37)
I just was like this fierce mum. Like I was like, you do not talk to her like that. You do not like, and he'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I'm like, and you know, if she was at school and she had to have a meeting with a principal or whatever we had, she, I would always be like, right, Charlotte has something to say. And I'd be like, okay, tell them, you know, like advocating for her to have her say, so you know, yes, okay. Listen to what they have to say. But has everyone considered the whole story, you know, because
Brooke (34:32.735)
Yeah, I love that, yeah.
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (34:42.06)
A lot of the times and totally off tangent right now, but a lot of the times there's more, you know, there's either side of the incident required to understand what's happened, right? So it could be a week before it could be an hour before it could be 10 minutes before, but before the incident, what happened? And sometimes the story is not just what happened in that moment. It's like either side of it. So, you know, like I used to be like, okay, she has Charlotte has something to explain right now. like,
And is you know, and always always said, you know, is it okay, Charlotte tells you her side of the story? Yeah, yeah. So but anyway, I just one thing that I kept thinking about this morning when I was thinking about talking to you was like, you mentioned at the start, like, you know, every morning at 6am, you'll would go off and you'd be like, no, I don't want to do it again. And I guess your motto is Just One More So
Brooke (35:14.892)
I love that. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (35:35.916)
Did you find it easier once you got started? that there's this, and I know from my own experiences, I hate running. I'm not a runner. And I had to run a lot in the police academy and I ended up with shin splints and plantar fasciitis. And I went to a physio and the physio was like, hey hun, you're not built for running. That's what she said to me. And I was like, right, fine. I'm never running again.
Brooke (35:42.867)
Okay.
Brooke (35:55.927)
it
don't believe that. I don't believe that. I would challenge that.
Kristi McVee (36:03.426)
know, but it suited my story really well. I'm like, I'm not built for running. I don't have to run ever again. But I have run in the past, like I've done lots of different fitness stuff in over the last 16 years since I was in the police academy. But the thing that I was thinking of is like the runs where like, you know, you're just not feeling it, you just don't want to do it like
Brooke (36:06.679)
BLEH
Yeah.
Brooke (36:16.673)
Thank you.
Brooke (36:24.085)
Yeah, was, there was lots of days where I just didn't want to do it and now my support crew knew, do not wake me up before 5:30. Otherwise, I will not get out of bed and I will be a little bitch. So don't wake me up before 5:30. But, and then straight away it was like coffee then off I go. But every, like each morning it was so different, it was so hard. Specifically for the first eight weeks was the hardest because my body was becoming conditioned.
Kristi McVee (36:36.759)
Okay.
Kristi McVee (36:48.302)
Run.
Brooke (36:51.467)
But then it literally just got to a point. And so in the first eight weeks, my joints were so sore, like sore to the point that every day I was pretty much just crying. And I was like, can I even do this? But then I just kept going, just kept going. Now focused on my, I really just focused on my mental fitness. And I was like, all you gotta do is run to that pole. All you gotta do is run to the caravan. All you gotta do is one foot in front of the other. Literally, I just broke it down into the smallest things. And when I hit the 80Ks, I was like, cool, done, go to sleep. When I...
Kristi McVee (36:51.491)
Yeah.
Brooke (37:21.074)
ran another 10k's I celebrated myself but when it got to about week eight that's when I was like you know what maybe my body can't do 80k's every single day for 180 days so that's when I just stripped it and I was like you've really got to listen to your body now and the moment that I made that choice to listen to my body was the moment that my body responded so much better and it started doing it with so much more ease and I started injecting more joy into the run
And everything else became bearable and became more doable. Like 60 Ks became an absolute breeze. 70 Ks became an absolute breeze. I ran 125 Ks. That became an absolute breeze because I pushed when I knew I could push and I pulled back to 60 Ks when I had to pull back. Now, female bodies are completely different than male bodies. So males run on 24 hour clock. We run on like a 35 day clock like that. So then I knew that there was going to be a week in the month.
where I wasn't going to be able to perform my ultimate best. But instead of bashing myself down saying you're worthless, you're stupid, you're not going to be able to do this. I just led with grace and I was like, you know what? You're actually about to have your period. You're in this part of your cycle now. Just pull back a little bit, eat more food, recover better, focus on your sleep. And then next week you'll be able to hit 100km a day. And I did. And running has this really, really cool effect. And I can't wait to give, to be able to give this gift to so much more people. But
It's like you hit a certain point in running and it's different for everyone, but you hit a certain point. And to be honest, running became my therapy and how I healed through so much trauma. But you hit this certain point and you have two options. You can either fold and cave and say, I've done enough. My body's aches, my knees are aching. Or you can choose courage and keep pushing for just one more and see where your mind takes you. And then you stick with it.
and you see where your mind takes you, you ask yourself the deeper questions. What's this trying to teach me? What's this coming up? What story am I telling myself right now? What's ready to be released? All while you're moving forward. And it's like you go through this massive mental breakdown and then you get this massive mental breakthrough and you're on this massive runners high that you're just like, I can overcome and do anything that I could just keep running. Cause you're just full of so much dopamine that you just keep going. And
Kristi McVee (39:41.774)
Yeah.
Brooke (39:47.669)
It was day 140. No, it would have been like a day 190. It was coming from Carnarvon. I ran into Carnarvon on the west side. So it was coming to the end of the run. But I really wanted to push myself so hard because my body was conditioned, my mind was conditioned. But I was like, I just want to know where my mind's going to take me. If I say to the girls, I'm going to push myself over 100 kilometers today. I just want to see where it's going to take me. If there's any, I guess, traumas.
Kristi McVee (40:12.814)
You're almost like, yeah, you were like seeking out that where is my limit today? Or where is my limit?
Brooke (40:16.981)
I was looking for it.
Brooke (40:22.473)
was seeking out the pain. I literally was seeking out the internal pain to come up for me to like move through it. So I said to the girls, I was like, hey girls, I'll give you three days notice, but next Tuesday we're waking up at 4 a.m. I'm gonna be running from 5 a.m. As soon as crack of dawn happens, I'm gonna be running until I can't run anymore. And they're like, okay, okay. So we all agreed. We all had incredible night's sleep. We all got the preparation done. We all got the food ready. Cause there's a whole more tour as in like,
sleep cycles, preparation, food, what I have to eat a few days before. And I have to take into consideration my teammates, like what they're going through too. So I was like, Tuesday, we've all got to be on point. So this day we woke up and I just remember hitting 10 kilometres and I was like, oh yeah, feeling good. And I had Miley Cyrus to climb on repeat for the whole day. And we got to 20 kilometres and I was like, this is interesting. We got to 30, got to 40, got to 50. And I was like, still nothing.
Kristi McVee (41:13.46)
Brooke (41:20.831)
We got to 60 and I was like, what the hell? We got to 90 kilometers and it was five o'clock in the afternoon. And I was like, no, it was about six o'clock in the afternoon and we got to 90 kilometers, almost a hundred kilometers. The sun started going down and I was like, where are these stories? Why are they not coming up? And at seven, seven o'clock that night, I ended up calling it because it was getting far too dark and there was just like no lights or anything around just too dangerous as well. So.
Kristi McVee (41:23.438)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (41:46.421)
dangerous.
Brooke (41:50.664)
I ended up falling out at about 7, 7:30. I ended up running 111 kilometers that day and having so much fun. And it took me 11 hours and 40 minutes to do. I, what, yeah. And while I was chasing that pain to come up, nothing came up because my body and my mind was so conditioned that I was like.
Kristi McVee (42:01.696)
Alright.
Kristi McVee (42:08.245)
of course. It was like, we know what we're doing. We've done this for the last six months. Like, it's all good. It's all good.
Brooke (42:14.324)
Yeah!
Brooke (42:17.972)
was so amazed. I was like, Oh my God, it was so much fun. if there was more lights of the day, I would have happily kept going on, but I was just having so much fun out there.
Kristi McVee (42:27.104)
Out of interest, were you the type of person before the accident to put your hand up to go first at things? Were you, were you, so you weren't there like, okay, I've got to do something like scary or make to make me feel anxious. I'll go first. Okay. Let me, let me ask, are you the type of person put your hand up first now?
Brooke (42:32.902)
No, no way.
Brooke (42:41.318)
Nah, I would always go second. I'll go back. Yeah.
Brooke (42:48.788)
Depending what it is. If it's crazy enough, yeah. But I mean, like if it's jumping off a bridge, no. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (42:50.35)
Yeah, yeah, you're chasing adrenaline and high. You're chasing that like that dopamine adrenaline like that. Let's go. And you also what I found, you know, the police, not the same extent as you. But, you know, there was a when I first got into the police academy and they made us run like 10Ks in this 40, 40 degree day, we were doing push ups and all sorts of sit ups on the hard concrete and
We were running, running, up and down hills and stuff. it was like the first week of the academy. And I was like, they're trying to break us. And I remember driving home after this. I was like the slowest, because I'm a five foot one. I wasn't built for it. And I hated PT. And I remember just driving home and calling my stepsister and going, they're trying to break us. I'm giving up.
Brooke (43:20.276)
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (43:43.534)
And she's like, don't be stupid. You came all this way. You did the beep test all those times. You got through all of this and you're in and you're going to give up. And I mean, in the moment I wanted to give up, right? And, but there was so many times in the police academy that I was like, I just can't do this. Like if it was, if it was mental, I was fine. Physical, physical and mental. And I was like, but anyway, I got through, obviously I graduated. I got through, I got through and I became a detective in four years.
But I just remember, I think, you know, there is that moment, I never used to be brave. And so when, and you know, being in a, for me personally, being in the police actually made me brave. Like I never, and you are now talking in schools, talking on stages, talking about a whole movement that is you, like you are this movement, right? And in my case, it's kind of me as well, because I left the police with this burning desire to help people understand.
Brooke (44:18.536)
Mmm.
Brooke (44:24.371)
Mm.
Brooke (44:41.427)
Mm, yeah.
Kristi McVee (44:42.488)
to help them prevent abuse where they can and when they can. And so it's like, it's almost taken over me. It's literally what I wake up to do, breathe, sleep. I can't stop thinking about it. And it's six years on now and I'll bet you you'll be the same.
Brooke (44:48.995)
Yeah.
Brooke (44:57.905)
Yeah, but you do whatever it takes to do this mission. You do whatever it takes to prevent children being harmed. You do whatever it takes to do your mission. And come back to goal setting and running and stuff. Like right now, if someone said, go run a marathon, I'll be like, nah, that's boring. Why would I do that? No way. If someone's... I'll be like, nah, what's the point? But then if someone goes to me, if someone goes to me and this is, guess, jumping ahead, but what's in the future for us, go run around Tasmania.
Kristi McVee (45:12.91)
Go run an ultra marathon. I've done 14,000 kilometers.
Brooke (45:27.558)
hell yeah, I'll do that. Because it's attached to my mission. It's attached to my vision and it's attached to my why. I'm like a marathon's just a marathon. Everyone's doing that. That's boring. No way. I'll go run around Tasmania and then I'll do New Zealand and then all over this stuff because it's connected to my mission and I will literally do whatever it takes. And I think the one thing that I really love about your work, Kristi and what Jess Van Moor is and highly aligned is we don't, we don't fucking sugarcoat it. Like
Kristi McVee (45:29.004)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (45:36.982)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (45:55.534)
Try not to.
Brooke (45:56.946)
try not to because I believe if we want real change in the world, the change comes from the truth. And if we first can't handle the truth, well then there's no fucking change. It's just all this awareness, blasé, dancing around the fire. Like we know it's a problem. So we have to shine light on the truth and then bring the prevention into it because we know that we can make the change, but it first starts with the truth. And some people just don't like the truth. And that's one thing that I love about the work that you do. It's like,
Kristi McVee (46:10.754)
Yeah.
Brooke (46:27.642)
It's a real issue. So let's learn and teach parents to prevent it and give them the prevention techniques instead of how to heal from it. It's like your daughter says, yes, we need trauma. Yes, we do. But we can prevent things.
Kristi McVee (46:41.934)
Yeah, we'd rather not do that to get trauma. I agree with you. And I think like it's something that comes up a lot. And I actually have had a question yesterday because I put up a post about the AFP in Australia.
Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation has put up a picture of a bracelet on a child's wrist and what they do in their work is they obviously see child abuse material and child sexual abuse exploitation material and they're trying to identify victims from...
Brooke (47:13.265)
Mm.
Kristi McVee (47:15.084)
key things in the video like they will screenshot like a bracelet or a blanket and they're trying to help get people's help in identifying it so they can find the victims. It's a massive job and it's a hard job for those people that work in that space and I always share them because I know how important they are and someone said to me yesterday how are you still doing this?
Brooke (47:25.937)
Mm.
Kristi McVee (47:37.07)
How do you stay keep going knowing what you know and how like with everything that's going on in the world right now and how and I sat with it for a bit because you know like sometimes I'm sure you'll go through it as well sometimes you go oh it's just too big this mission is like it's too hard like no one's listening or you feel like no one's getting it and then when I sat with it and I remember
Brooke (47:51.013)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (48:00.642)
when I first wrote my book, and I'm guessing there's a book coming from you, by the way, if there's not one already. anyways, and I sat with it and I remember the day that I finished writing my book and I I burst into tears and my daughter came in and she was like, what are you crying for, mom? And it was like the 13th of December. I stopped writing and I looked at the screen I was like, shit, I fucking finished.
Brooke (48:07.312)
Thank
Brooke (48:21.009)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (48:26.964)
And then, like I said, burst into tears. It was like an overwhelming sense of like, oh my God, I'm done. Like this is two years of my life and I'm finished. She came in and she goes, what's wrong? And I was like, I finished my book. And she said, mom, you're going to change the world. And but in that moment, I just remember thinking, I just wanted to save one kid. I just want to save one kid.
Brooke (48:48.48)
Yeah, yeah.
Kristi McVee (48:51.628)
And that's what I tell myself. So when I was thinking about how do I keep going, I just focus all everyone can do.
Brooke (48:58.48)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (48:58.72)
is focus on their family, their children, their little community, their next door neighbor's kids or their next door neighbor or their dad or their, you know, the people around you. That's all you can do is focus on that. And everyone who focuses on one more person is actually creating like this flow on effect, this ripple. And it's exactly like what you've created in your Just One More.
Brooke (49:24.432)
Yeah, it's like when you throw a stone in a water, it's all the ripples around like we are the one stone, we chuck it in, we do our best bit. And then that just keeps rippling on. And I guarantee that in the moments that you may feel like that, I feel like that sometimes too. I see the suicide rates increasing. I find out about 15 year olds, about 12 year olds get these messages. I get messages come through all the time. But then I get messages saying, Hey, just one more helped me. Hey,
You've saved my life in this." And I'm like, that's what outweighs it because I could focus on the lack or I could focus on the one more person. And that's, I guess, what we choose to focus on. And when we are in those places, like I've, literally have a folder in my phone and I call it feel good messages. And when I need to, because I'm bombarded with, I guess, darkness, I go into those messages and I'm like, okay, I helped this person. I helped this person, me running.
help this person. My podcast is helping this person. And I read those messages again.
Kristi McVee (50:24.834)
Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly what I want to.
think you'll agree, I just want parents and people every day, anyone to realize that if you just focus on your little world, because the world is so big, we can't help 8 point something billion people. We can only help the people that live right here in your space right now, your family, your partner, your children, your neighbors, your whoever it is that is in your world. And we can't change what happens to each and every one person.
Brooke (50:44.72)
Mm-hmm.
Brooke (50:52.288)
Thank you.
Kristi McVee (50:59.248)
but we can help them in that moment. And I look back on my own experiences. I don't know about you Brooke, but when I was a kid and I felt like I had no one, there's one or two people in my life that were like a lighthouse in my life. I was a teenager who didn't have anyone to talk to, felt so alone. And I remember sitting in my bedroom crying about how unfair the life. And every teenager does this, right? I'm sure of it. But I was in my bedroom and I was crying and I was thinking the world does, I don't wanna be here.
Brooke (51:07.536)
you you
Brooke (51:27.087)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (51:29.168)
anymore. No one cares if I'm here or not. Luckily for me, there was this one person, she was a like, I had horses, which was another saving grace for me. But she just, she called like she came and picked me up to take me to the horses. And she was so happy all the time. And, you know, she just like was this lighthouse, she she loved me.
Brooke (51:47.087)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (51:51.358)
she just loved me for being me like and she wasn't even my family she was a neighbor and you know and I look back on her and I've written her a letter since and I've basically told her that she was the one that got me through my childhood because and sometimes you might be that person for someone you might just be the person that speaks up and says you know I can tell you're not feeling so like I've just noticed you're not feeling so great right now like and
you tell me if I'm wrong, it's okay if I've got it wrong, but I've just noticed that you're just not, you don't seem like you're that happy right now or, you know, whatever it is. So I think what you're doing and what I do is so important in the world because we just need to remind people to just focus on themselves and the people in their lives.
Brooke (52:19.238)
Yeah.
Brooke (52:31.397)
Yeah.
Brooke (52:38.507)
Yeah, and I love how you just said that she wasn't a part of your family, immediate family. Like I think sometimes we expect our family to be able to give and show up and understand us and understand, I guess, our mental health and what we're going through when they're going through their own shit. They got their own world that they're creating. And sometimes your lighthouse is my lighthouse was my teacher. I thought I would never say that, but she still is my lighthouse.
Kristi McVee (53:02.54)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (53:06.542)
you.
Brooke (53:07.498)
On turn, I've now become her lighthouse and she implements just one more into her life, into the divorce that she's been going through over the last three years, into the healing journey that she's been going through over the last three years. And I'm like, that's so cool because that one teacher believed in me. Yeah, I wasn't a grade A student. Other teachers called me a misfit. Other teachers thought I was a mischief kid, got Ds, all of this stuff. But she, she was my English teacher and like,
I somewhat excelled in her English type class because she believed in me. She seen me. And it wasn't like you have to get A's, you have to do this, you have to do that. It was like you're something special kid. Like she didn't. Yeah. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (53:39.384)
She believed in you.
Kristi McVee (53:47.446)
Yeah, and you are look at you look at you doing I bet you any money saw you and she was like, I knew I knew it.
Brooke (53:55.425)
She was at the finish line, both rums and buying my merch and all of that. And I'm like, Yuzi, what the hell? So yeah, it's a very cool 360 moment, but like your lighthouse doesn't have to be your immediate family. It could just be that one person who sees you and you never know in turn what you shining your light does for them as well.
Kristi McVee (54:02.093)
Yes sir.
Kristi McVee (54:16.942)
You know, that's beautiful.
I also had a teacher that was like that and she knew that I was going through stuff at home and she knew that it wasn't great. And you know, like that's what I often tell when I do teacher presentations or like training to teachers or even early childhood educators, anyone who works with kids, you don't realize how much power you have in changing a child's life and what you could be doing for that person. So you you might, some people say that disruptive kid and that, you
Brooke (54:18.593)
Mm.
Brooke (54:39.437)
Thank
Kristi McVee (54:48.364)
naughty kid but maybe that kid just is waiting for someone to see them and just needs them to be seen and so I just I just love that you had that and she's so she's still around supporting him
Brooke (54:59.214)
She's still around. We do crossfit up together sometimes. She comes to the finish lines of my run. Just so cool. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (55:06.242)
That's amazing. That is amazing. So Brooke, I think the best thing that people can do is follow you because you absolutely are a powerhouse woman. I'm in awe of you. I think you're amazing. I think everything you've done has been soul driven. It's like it had to all happen the way it happened so that you could be here today sharing this mission. But I can imagine schools.
Brooke (55:27.863)
Thank you.
Kristi McVee (55:32.206)
You know, kids, must think you're amazing. Like you're a superwoman when they hear your story.
Brooke (55:32.525)
Yeah, it's really funny like talking to the kids. They're like, Miss, how many shoes did you go through? Miss, did you really run that way? Miss, what shoes did you wear? And sometimes like when I was going around Australia, I went and spoke to the school kids and I would go into the class and I'll just wear my high socks and my Crocs. And the kids are like, do you run in your Crocs? And I was like, well, let's go to the oval and go for a run. And I think that's the...
Kristi McVee (55:54.57)
Yeah.
Brooke (56:00.747)
That's the coolest thing is being able to get on their level. But now, like this stage of the journey is more sharing about the Just One More, exactly where I started from and like what my school life was like and how words created my worlds and sharing more about the mission. So people can absolutely follow along on my personal page and more so on the Just One More, the movement page and support that way and support all the upcoming events that we do have coming out this year.
Kristi McVee (56:12.77)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (56:18.956)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (56:24.163)
Yeah.
I will definitely share all of this in the show notes. so to just be a hundred percent sure where's the best place to follow you if they want to follow your journey and what you're bringing to the world and what you're creating.
Brooke (56:40.638)
at just one more dot the movement. Yeah, just one more dot the movement. are on Instagram and Facebook. So please follow along on there and everything is all over there.
Kristi McVee (56:51.182)
Yeah, and yeah, so I just I can't wait to meet you in person. We live in the same state for goodness sakes. But yeah, I know. And do you know what? I wasn't even in Bumbree at the time. I was in Perth and I was like, what? Because I remember Heidi putting it out there and like anyone down south and I was like, I'm going to be up there. But yeah, it just happens the way. And in fact, I was over in
Brooke (56:57.546)
ran past you.
Brooke (57:11.62)
Yeah
Kristi McVee (57:16.046)
cough over the other side of the country. was over in Brisbane or something when you were running, but you just passed Brisbane and you're high. I know I was going to try and catch up to you, but I just couldn't get there. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, too fast. Do you, do you run every day now? That's my last question.
Brooke (57:25.548)
Too fast!
Brooke (57:33.588)
No, I know. Since finishing it's been almost five months, I can't believe it. But no, my joints don't like running right now. I'm almost at the stage where I can... They're varying, recovery. I'm almost at the stage where I can run one kilometre, two kilometres, but I can't even do 5Ks yet. So that's been taken a toll. But I I trashed my joints. But I'm into yoga and Pilates right now, which is a real different stage. But it's nice. Yeah.
Kristi McVee (57:40.93)
No, they're in recovery.
Kristi McVee (57:50.444)
You thrashed your body. You thrashed it.
Kristi McVee (57:56.654)
Amazing. Your body needs that extra like love and relaxation and stress, like not so much impact, I think. And I learned that the hard way when I got off my 135. And there's nothing like what you did, but that was a hard mental task as well. And I read a study, just to go off topic for a second, I read a study that said the more challenge that you put in your life, the better your brain health is.
Brooke (58:06.25)
Yeah.
Brooke (58:14.208)
Yeah.
Kristi McVee (58:22.144)
And so, you know, if you have, I'm not talking about challenges that aren't your choice. Like I'm talking about challenges like doing something different, like making yourself, you know, something a little hard that has to create greater neuro pathways, your, like dementia and things like that. And you have less,
Brooke (58:22.196)
Amen.
Kristi McVee (58:40.898)
brain, you better brain health, longevity and all sorts of stuff. So I wouldn't suggest anyone taking up 14,000 kilometer run around Australia. But hey, if you want to contact Brooke. All right, Brooke, thank you so much. And like I said, I will put every bit of your information in the show notes for everyone so they can follow you.
Brooke (58:47.979)
it.
Brooke (58:51.595)
I'll be there to support you every step of the way.
Brooke (59:03.231)
Perfect. Thank you so much for having me on and yeah, chat soon.
Kristi McVee (59:06.508)
Yes. Yeah.
