What a fantastic speaker Dame Kelly Holmes MBE was at our 2020 conference. We are still hearing comments from our members about how inspirational she was, and we think it’s going to be hard to top her appearance when we line up speakers for our next conference.
Kelly joined us to speak to our attendees about her career, her mental health issues and what organisations and individuals need to do to help themselves and each other.
As a teenager Kelly had two dreams, to join the army and win an Olympic gold medal. After early school-level success on the track she joined the army, initially training as an HGV driver. After 10 years in the army, rising to the rank of sergeant class 1 Physical Training Instructor, Kelly left the forces and returned to the running track full time.
Despite injuries Kelly amassed seven gold, eight silver and four bronze medals at Olympic Commonwealth and European levels. In 2004, in Athens, she became the first British athlete in more than 80 years to win a double gold on the track. She was also named BBC Sports Personality of the Year and European Athlete of the Year.
It was after retirement that she opened up about her battle with mental health and depression. She has since become a champion for greater awareness and support in all areas of life and we think it was an incredibly important topic for our attendees to consider in all aspects of their personal and professional lives.
The key messages our members took away from Kelly’s talk was that self-belief and perseverance are the keys to success. She said that anything worth having, takes time, and nothing is a given.
During her talk she also took a personal look at the ups and downs of her own career, on and off the track, and what kept her going and able to achieve her goals.
Drawing on her time in the army, as well as her athletics career, she also spoke to our members about effective team building, planning and preparation. Our conference attendees were able to take lots of this advice away with them and put it into practice during the everyday running of their garden centres.
Dame Kelly’s resilience and her discussions surrounding mental health and wellbeing will have helped many members throughout the lockdowns and caring for their teams and customers.
It’s been tough for everyone and her words have never been more inspiring, as we remember them a year on and we all continue to operate with COVID firmly in our minds and our daily actions.