Kindness Factory founder to headline Read The Play fundraiser

THE healing power of kindness will step back into focus next week, when former professional cricketer and NSW Australian of the Year Kath Koschel returns to GMBHA Stadium in support of local mental health service Read The Play.

Ms Koschel is no stranger to adversity. At the age of 23, she broke her back and was told she would never walk again. Determined to defy the odds, she threw herself into rehab and there met the love of her life. But before they could begin building their future together, she lost him to suicide.

Then, just five years after her first back injury, Ms Koschel was forced to learn to walk again for the second time after being hit from behind by a 4WD truck while training for an ironman triathlon.

“I was a very young adult when I was going through most of this adversity, and I probably didn’t, in hindsight, have the coping skills that I needed. Who does at any age, right?” she said. “And so, it was these really profound moments of small things that others were doing for me that lifted me out of the darker place that I was finding myself in.

“I kept thinking, ‘Well, if this can pull me out of a pretty deep struggle, what could it do generally for society?'”

The moment that changed everything and sparked the beginning of what has become a global kindness initiative named the Kindness Factory was fleeting but powerful: unable to reach an elevator button from her wheelchair one day while leaving the hospital, a stranger walking past hit it for her.

“It’s very small, but as I heard the ping of the elevator arriving, I don’t know why, it just felt like he believed in me, and I needed to believe in myself again,” Ms Koschel said.

“I’ve found time and time again, that’s what kindness has the power to do. It can instil belief in people. It can give them courage.”

After sharing her story at last year’s annual Read The Play fundraising breakfast – the organisation’s biggest event of the year – Ms Koschel’s return as next week marks a unique opportunity, with the internationally sought after keynote speaker rarely returning to the same venue twice.

A firm believer that you need to learn to be kind to yourself before you can learn to truly be kind to others, her presentation will focus on the benefits of a life of kindness and how it can be achieved, covering themes such as self-awareness and self-acceptance, self-care and defining one’s values.

“We actually can’t help others unless we’ve helped ourselves… Something I’m really passionate about now is definitely putting your own oxygen mask on first,” she said.

“We can’t burn the candle at both ends, and we can’t do it all.”

Read The Play’s fundraising breakfast will take place on Friday, July 25.

For more information, head to readtheplay.org.au