A mid-wife crisis comes suddenly. And yet, it takes many years to build.
Like a messy Tupperware cupboard.
First, there are a few mismatched pairs, then only a couple of things go together. And then nothing works. And all you’re left with is a big mess.
That was life for Di Westaway.
These days, the 56-year-old is a successful businesswoman who has summited countless mountain peaks and raised almost $20 million for charity.
But at the cusp of turning forty, things were very different.
Di shares how her life took an incredible turn, on I Don’t Know How She Does It:
“I was just in an absolute rut. I was miserable. I was overweight. I was unfit. I just wasn’t able to squeeze in any sort of self-care or any exercise or anything for me, it was just a matter of surviving.
“I was in a bad marriage, it was quite a dysfunctional marriage at the time, and I just knew if I didn’t do something, I’d go under. I was approaching forty and of course those of us who’ve got there … that’s a serious thing for a woman and you think that life ends”.
But Di’s life was just beginning. A friend asked her to climb a mountain. It involved focus, preparation, fitness and friendship.
“It had never entered my mind that I’d do something like that but I was so desperate that I said ‘yes, that [sounds] like a great way to escape’ … it was a very big failure, we didn’t summit … but what I learnt about myself, what I learnt about adventure … was extraordinary and I became the fittest I’d been in years and while the mountain climb was a fail, the epiphany I had after that journey was like, ‘I can’t go back now, I have to do more of this and I have to see if other women want to do it’.”