March 31st
The Gift
Stories about the gifts we don’t always recognise at the time — sometimes wrapped as a real present, and sometimes arriving as one small moment that quietly changes how we see our lives.
Meet Our Storytellers
Maryan Bova
Maryan has been a Registered Nurse for 30 years, working in the community setting for much of that time. She has a passion for helping others, and has extended this to practicing as a mindset coach, speaker, author and retreat facilitator. She has spoken in rooms such as Tik Tok, Bytedance, Kering group and the Digital Health Summit.
What has really taken Maryan's passion is working in the grief and loss space, to inform us how we can live more fully into the higher, truer expression of ourselves. Maryan's growing interest in this field occured when her beautiful Mum Helen was diagnosed with Grade 4 Glioblastoma, terminal brain cancer in 2020. Maryan sees this time as the most profound of both Helen's and her family’s life, witnessing Helen in all her radiant essence, shining brightly in the backdrop of this cruel disease. It cemented Maryan's belief that we are never alone, and that if we are willing to look beneath the human experience of grief and loss, then we become available to receive the gifts that afford us a freedom and connection we so desperately crave.
Maryan is writing a book about this experience and making a film that will help others see the gift in this very human experience that is grief.
Greg McInnes
I started my business Hanging Around in the mid 1980s when I saw no one else was doing picture hanging / art installation on a professional basis. Straight out of school I worked at Sydney’s premier camera store Georges and by 21 was one of their managers, I left Georges after 4 years and after a year travelling around Australia started a home maintenance business Mighty Maintenance which I morphed into the art installation business, which has been my full time occupation ever since.
My sport of choice is windsurfing, specifically, Raceboarding which to the uninitiated is essentially course racing, as opposed to wave jumping or tricks etc.
I was born in the town of Deniliquin as 1 of 4 kids, and have 4 daughters and 2 grandkids of my own. It pleases me to say I enjoy the company of all my siblings and my daughters and they seem to enjoy my company too so for me that’s my happiest accomplishment. Over the next few years I’ll transition into retirement and pursue other interests and attempt to indoctrinate the grand kids into windsurfing perhaps.
Zoe Hudson
Zoe Hudson is a Manly-based theatre producer and community builder dedicated to creating spaces for creativity and connection.
She is the founder of Manly Theatre Group, which has produced over 50 original plays and the annual Manly Festival of Short Plays, and the creator of Manly42, a social enterprise bringing people together through talks, workshops and cultural events.
Zoe is passionate about giving people courage to express themselves creatively.
Thomas Wilson
Thomas Wilson is a writer whose work sits at the intersection of memory, place, and quiet observation. Born in the United States and now living in Australia, he has spent the last six decades moving between countries, cultures, and landscapes... from corporate boardrooms and border crossings to remote bush tracks and kitchen tables.
His essays are less concerned with arrival than with attention: the moments that shape us without announcing themselves. He writes about fear as something learned early and managed slowly, about the people who teach us how to keep going, and about the small acts of courage that rarely get named as such.
Thomas publishes his work on Substack under the long-running collection Notes From Afield, recently completed after more than 140 essays, and a new body of work titled Meanwhile.
Beyond the page, Thomas has worked across global business often finding himself in places where listening mattered more than speaking. His Australian citizenship has been recently approved... a process shaped not by paperwork alone, but by time spent in the bush, in cities, and in conversation. His Aussie friends and family saying "It's about goddamned time!"
He believes stories do not exist to impress, but to remind. That sometimes the most important thing a story can do is teach us how to turn the page.
Zeynep Roberts
I started my journey as a Brand Manager at Burns Philp and my first success in marketing was creating and launching Dilmah tea. I then progressed to become National Marketing Director for Heinz/Wattie’s before I moved into my own consultancy called Nine Dots Marketing. We specialised in Competency Development and technical training in Marketing and Management. My clients included Colonial First State, National Foods, NAB, AMI, Goodman Fielder, Nestle, Accor Hotels, Institute of Chartered Accountants to name a few.
Currently I teach international business strategy, and business research at University of Wollongong.
My most recent adventure and passion has been setting up and building a not-forprofit charity in Cambodia called Step 2 Foundation. Our mission is to provide young people with education opportunities. I have also worked with communities to bring clean drinking water to thousands of people in the Siem Reap district in Cambodia.
Kim Borrowdale
Kim Borrowdale is a self-described coasty bogan from a small town on Bundjalung lands in Northern NSW who's made her way, via a decade in London, to the slightly bigger beach community of Manly, where she's been for the past ten years.
Kim loves the ocean, road trips to find hidden gems across the country, storytelling events, live music, and pretty much anything creative. She's endlessly curious about how people weave their way through the world and the stories they carry with them.
On the work side of things, Kim is a communications specialist and storytelling coach running Borrowdale Communications, where she's spent more than 20 years helping people and organisations craft stories that matter. She pairs creative writing frameworks with evidence-based, trauma-informed safe storytelling guidance — whether that's coaching someone before a board presentation or helping them share their lived experience for the first time. Kim holds a Masters in Communication Management and is an accredited trainer. She loves nothing more than being in a room helping people find their voice.
Kim is particularly passionate about mental health and suicide prevention following the loss of her aunt to suicide, and has prioritised working in that space ever since. Previously Deputy CEO and Head of Communications for Suicide Prevention Australia, Kim now lends her expertise to socially conscious organisations as a freelance consultant.