Shine Awards 2022: Bathurst cookie maker Tanya-lee Holmes wins Courage category
A rural businesswoman who is a role model for people with disabilities has won this year’s Courage award. Meet the finalists.
The Weekly Times Shine Award for Courage goes to a woman who has spoken out, refused to give up, and found success against the odds.
One of six categories in the awards, which celebrate Australia’s rural women, Courage honours those who overcome adversity and provide inspiration to others. This year’s winner is Imperfectly Perfect Sugar Cookies founder Tanya-lee Holmes, from Bathurst, NSW, who is a role model for rural people living with disabilities. Finalists are Linda Goldspink-Lord from Illawarra, NSW, and Natalie Kerst from Healesville, Victoria. Read their stories:
2022 COURAGE WINNER: TANYA-LEE HOLMES
Entrepreneur, Bathurst, NSW
As the mother of children with cerebral palsy, Tanya-lee Holmes has always been a pillar of strength.
So when the Bathurst NSW entrepreneur suffered a freak spinal cord injury in 2016 that left her a “walking quadriplegic”, it turned her world upside down.
“It took a lot of time for me to accept that I now have a disability because I was so used to being the carer in my household,” says Tanya-lee, who went to sleep off a migraine and woke up paralysed after her cervical vertebrae shattered spontaneously.
She hasn’t let the injury stop her pursuing activities she has always loved, however. In particular, baking.
Pre-injury, Tanya-lee often made elaborate 3D cakes as “her therapy” to help deal with anxiety, triggered by years spending time in and out of hospitals with her children.
One son is a talented wheelchair racer, and his determination to reach for his own dreams pushed Tanya-lee to set her own lofty goals.
She turned her hand back to baking, making simpler – but still impressive – decorated cookies. What started as a hobby, quickly rolled into a business with the launch of Imperfectly Perfect Sugar Cookies.
She has built a huge following, recently fulfilling her biggest order yet – 1600 cookies for corporate client Newcrest Mining.
She also uses the business’s social media profile to raise awareness about mental health support and inspire other people living with disabilities to pursue their goals.
“In the first 12 months of having an injury I went to numerous job interviews, and was knocked back because of my disability,” she says. “I guess that was also why I started the business; that part of me still wanting to prove I was capable.
“I’m actually proud of being a person with a disability and especially a woman in business with a disability because it is not something you see a lot of. And I really believe you can’t be something you don’t see.”
Tanya-lee raises money for veterans charities and has been made an affiliate member of her Bathurst RSL sub branch for her efforts. Friend and customer Elise Smyth says Tanya-lee is always the first to help her community and “so worthy of winning an award”.
For her determination to overcome her injury, and be a role model for her family, rural women and people with disabilities, Tanya-lee is a worthy winner of the Shine Award for Courage.
FINALIST: LINDA GOLDSPINK-LORD
Author and animal-nutrition entrepreneur, Illawarra, NSW
Linda Goldspink-Lord looks like she has it all.
Growing up at Wollongong, Linda was a chief executive by the age of 22, and is now an entrepreneur and author who balances it all with motherhood.
But what really drives the 55-year-old is what she has lost.
At the age of 40, Linda had pushed herself to the limit in her corporate role and was diagnosed with a virus in her brain. She was unwell for years.
Then, in 2012, while still sick, her world crumbled when one of her three children – daughter Molly, 13 – was killed in an ATV accident on the family’s rural property.
“The world became black and dark,” she says. “There are no words to describe it.”
Linda was consumed by grief.
She tried to cope by caring for the emotional health of her other two children, Riley, now 25, and Emily, 20.
She also looked after her horses and dogs – “animals got me through my grief” – and, after five years of struggles, eventually looked after her own health, including stripping sugar from her diet.
“Within a week of quitting sugar, I could not believe the change,” she says. “It was almost instant. I felt my grief just became more manageable.”
While she still aches for Molly to this day, she has found a new purpose – sharing what she has learnt about grief, and health, with others.
She published a book, Crawling Through Darkness, in February this year that tells her story of dealing with Molly’s death and touches on sibling grief as well. Plus, she and her husband, Peter, have launched an animal-nutrition company called Poseidon Animal Health, which applies what she has learnt about health to create complete gut supplements for horses and dogs.
“We really focus on education” she says. “We are saying to people, rather than medications, how about look at how you feed your horse.”
At the heart of everything she does, is a desire to use her experience of the devastating loss of Molly to help improve the lives of others.
“If we have the permission to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and truly walk the journey of grief, on the other side there is absolutely respect and gratitude for every moment,” she says. “I don’t want to be the grief expert, I want to be able to give people hope.
“That is Molly’s gift to the world.”
FINALIST: NATALIE KERST
Flower farmer, Healesville, Victoria
Natalie Kerst’s life was as pretty as her gerberas.
It was three years ago, and the horticulturist and her glasshouse-maker husband, Sander, were producing cut flowers on their 17-hectare farm, The Big Bouquet.
They had realised their dream of farm ownership in 2015 when they bought the business from previous owners Bert and Margriet Rijk.
Natalie and Sander worked hard, and loved every minute, as did their children, Mika and Anya, who also pitched in.
In January 2020, however, their bright story turned dark.
Sander, 40, had an ATV accident on the farm, breaking his leg. His injury required multiple surgeries, and during one operation a blood clot caused cardiac arrest.
He didn’t survive.
“That was just the most horrible time of my life,” Natalie says. “There is nothing more challenging or difficult than coming home and telling your kids that their dad is not going to make it.”
Natalie was adamant she would manage The Big Bouquet on her own.
“This was our dream to have our kids and the farm and I just wanted to carry that on for the both of us,” she says.
She faced an uphill battle to survive Covid disruption, which decimated demand for cut flowers. “It was disaster; we were just throwing everything in the bin, and wondering what am I going to do,” she says.
She soldiered on with a skeleton crew of female workers, and huge support from Margriet and Bert, who say she is a “true inspiration”.
Demand for her flowers has returned, with Natalie now selling Australia-wide again, while also hosting guests at their on-farm cafe. Mika and Anya also help in the greenhouses and tend their sheep, bees, alpacas and chickens. Natalie says she wishes Sander could see them now.
“He’d be incredibly proud, he really would.”
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