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Dearest First name / One,

 

Well, I confess that I'm still catching my breath after the whirlwind that was World Childless Week 2025! So many gorgeous webinars and beautiful submissions (all of which you can access here). I'm proud to be a World Childless Week Ambassador, and deeply grateful to Stephanie Joy Phillips, the founder, who does a HUGE amount of work each year to offer this free–at considerable personal and financial cost. If you appreciate WCW, please donate here! 
 

I was proud to host two webinars for WCW: Finding Our Way Through the Pain of Regret, with Australian counsellor & founder of The Empty Cradle, Sarah Roberts, and Childless, Old & WORTHY! with the irrepressible NomoCrones. Each webinar was gorgeous and soulful in its own way, and if you didn't get a chance to watch them yet, I really hope you give yourself the gift of that soon.  

 

Now that it's October, I know that for many of us, the December ‘festival’ season starts to loom on the horizon. Whether you are part of a faith or not, the familial and cultural focus of this last quarter of the year is on people's lips and minds, and it can feel like there's no way to escape it. For those of us without partners too, the focus on ‘togetherness’ can feel very alienating. Something you might want to put on your calendar now for December is the bumper panel of NomoCrones I'm gathering for December 13th's ‘Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen’. We're going to be focusing on Celebrating our light, and registration for this free event is open here. 

 

Additionally, if you are a French speaker, there is a ten-week Zoom support group to get you through this season, starting Monday, 6th October, with Catherine-Emmanuelle Delisle (a dear friend, therapist & Licensed Reignite Weekend Facilitator) and Stéphanie Laprise, a psychosocial worker. Presented in French, they take place weekly from 6th October in the early evening, in two time zones suitable for Canada & France. C-E (as she is affectionately known to me) has been leading the childless conversation in French-speaking countries for over a decade now, and her award-winning work is outstanding. More here.

Back in August, the dynamic duo behind We Are Childfree–photographer Zöe Noble and writer James Glazebrook–came to spend a weekend in Ireland to do a photo and film interview with me. As respective prominent voices in the childless/childfree communities, we decided it was time to come together. And wow, what a soul-enriching weekend we had! The results included the best portraits of me I've ever seen (Zöe is very talented!) and an amazing written interview on their Substack (paywalled: free clips & photos here), as well as a really candid podcast interview with me (free). If you're on Instagram, they also did some great 2-minute video ‘reels’ of the weekend @weare.childfree (also here if you're not on Insta; both mention my partnered status, so skip the vid if that's a tender spot for you today). And if you'd like to have your childless/free portrait taken by Zöe, she's opened her waitlist here.  

 

With the growing rise of authoritarianism around the world, there's never been a more important time for all non-parents to come together to push back against pronatalism, and my weekend with James and Zöe felt like an important part of that; we had a lot of ideas in common, and they were inspired by our ALTERKIN project (which I talk about in some depth on the podcast), because finding low cost, practical solutions to the challenges of aging without children is one of the many things our communties have in common! 

 

Thanks for all your kind messages asking after my health. In the absence of any other diagnosis, it seems that Long Covid is the best fit, likely due to a very mild dose that it didn't even occur to me to test for. It's been six months now, and I've had some relief from some dietary changes, but my energy is still very low, and I'm wiped out by even minor exertion. If any of you who've experienced Long Covid have any tips for me, do drop me a line–I'd really appreciate it.

 

I'm off for a last blast of European warmth in Sardinia this Sunday (storms, strikes and world events permitting!) As always, I look forward to your thoughts–just hit reply and your message comes directly to me. And if you'd like to send me a cup of coffee to support my work, it's always welcome and helps me to continue offering so many free resources to our childless community worldwide, as I have done for the last 14 years. (Yes, Gateway Women will be 15 years old next year; I think it's time we had a bit of a celebration!)

What is the Reignite Weekend? 
The Reignite Weekend is the transformational healing weekend that I created in 2012 (and ran personally 50+ times) in many different countries. It now continues with my team of licensed facilitators in London (UK) and Australia. The testimonials continue to show that this weekend often marks a ‘before’ and ‘after’ moment in the trajectory of childless women's healing from the heartbreak of childlessness. Info, testimonials, booking links here.