Inspiring women
Battling grief, perimenopause and the ache of children leaving home, Jo Moseley, 59, from Skipton, Yorkshire, knew she needed a new focus. But how she discovered it was the most amazing part of all…
Trying to balance on the wobbling paddleboard, I felt my whole body tense with fear. I was 51, in the throes of the perimenopause and healing a knee injury.
Suddenly, my decision to try paddleboarding seemed far from a good idea! I had booked the first lesson after reading about it in a magazine, but it was a grey, overcast day in the Lake District and the slightly choppy lake was nothing like the pictures I’d seen of people bobbing about in the sunshine on blue, crystal-clear waters.
Worrying is my default position in life. If there’s something to worry As the board moved unsteadily beneath me, I was anxious about my knee and about falling in, but mostly I was worrying about whether this was going to be a disappointment. Whether I would be a disappointment. Within a few minutes of standing up, though, I looked across the lake and felt like a warrior, not a worrier. I felt strong, physically and mentally; it was everything I hoped it would be – and more. ‘This is it,’ I thought. ‘I’ve found something I’m going to love...’ about, I will find it and if there isn’t, I will make something to worry about.
MENTAL HEALTH BOOST
In 2019, three years after that first lesson, I became the first woman to paddle the 162-mile coast-to-coast canal route from Liverpool to Goole. My son Johnny, now 23, was leaving for university and, as a single mum, I wanted to show him and his older brother Henry that I was okay, and that they didn’t need to worry about me. Some people told me it would be too much for a woman ‘of my age’, but I had lost five girlfriends in the space of six months. Four had died of cancer and one of heart problems – and only one of them had reached 50. It made me realise that life is really short and precious. If you have a dream, you have to at least give yourself the chance to get to the start line.
I believe we ought to be protecting nature, not conquering it, so I combined the challenge with a litter pick. I collected as much as I could carry on my board, lots of crisp packets – one almost 24 years old – along with old balloons and bottles. I raised money for The 2 Minute Foundation and The Wave Project, a children’s surf- therapy charity. We made a short film about it – Brave Enough: A Journey Home To Joy – which was shown at Kendal Mountain Festival. It’s such a prestigious outdoor-adventure event – there were all these people who’ve done amazing things, such as c
