E36 - Guests: Liz McConaghy, the "Chinook Crew Chick"!

Leading 4 Life "Stories"

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It was an absolute pleasure to interview the effervescent and award winning Liz McConaghy for this week's episode. Author of the outstanding autobiographical book "Chinook Crew Chick", Liz is the longest serving female Chinook crewman, and during her 17 year RAF career, she completed an unbelievable 2 flying tours in Iraq and 10 in Afghanistan. She accrued some 3000 hours in the Chinook and flew in some incredibly tough roles, including a lot of Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) work, recovering injured and sometimes dead soldiers from the battlefield.
Liz's story really only starts with her time in the RAF though. Once she left, she suffered very significantly from post traumatic stress and ultimately attempted to take her own life in 2020. She talks extensively about this dark chapter of her life in the podcast and provides a huge amount of great advice for dealing with mental health challenges both personally and with those around you. It is an incredibly inspirational story and Liz's work now focused on helping others to understand and handle mental health challenges in all walks of life.
Without doubt, this is one of the most important podcasts I have done and I am sure you will find what Liz has to say, valuable, emotional and inspirational in equal measure. I cannot recommend her book highly enough - it is a really great read!
You can find Liz on here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-mcconaghy-84a46822/
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/chinnychick
In this episode we cover the following topics (starting time in brackets):

• Liz' career journey (00.02.53)
• Operations in Afghanistan (00.04.22)
• Early motivations (00.16.06)
• Advice to a school age Liz (00.21.33)
• Leadership as a Chinook crewman (00.23.19)
• Role models (00.26.59)
• Liz' mental health story (00.30.17)
• Retraumatisation and "opening the box" (00.40.24)
• Mental health coping strategies (00.50.05)
• Highs and lows (00.57.13)
• Most significant achievement (01.01.19)
• Career low point (01.02.47)
• Emptying the bucket! (01.06.43)
• Reflections on the RAF (01.09.27)
• Most memorable event (01.16.05)
• Most difficult question (01.17.32)

Thank you for listening!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob
Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

Luvut

1. E36 - Guests: Liz McConaghy, the "Chinook Crew Chick"! (00:00:00)

2. Liz's career journey (00:02:53)

3. Operations in Afghanistan (00:04:22)

4. Early motivations (00:16:06)

5. Advice to a school age Liz! (00:21:33)

6. Leadership as a Chinook crewman (00:23:19)

7. Role models (00:26:59)

8. Liz's mental health story (00:30:17)

9. Retraumatisation and "opening the box" (00:40:24)

10. Mental health coping strategies (00:50:05)

11. Highs and lows (00:57:13)

12. Most significant achievement (01:01:19)

13. Career low point (01:02:47)

14. Emptying the bucket! (01:06:43)

15. Reflections on the RAF (01:09:27)

16. Most memorable event (01:16:05)

17. Most difficult question (01:17:32)