PRESS RELEASE

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9 TH November 2018 - Melbourne: Casey Ellis has spent the last five years living every parent’s worst nightmare - watching your child sick and upset constantly with no idea how to fix it. Her ten-year-old daughter, Keira had to endure years of pain and suffering before she finally got a diagnosis for her severe food intolerance. During this time to try and bring some normality into her daughter’s life, Casey took to the stove. After hours of research and trial and error she created foods Keira actually wanted to eat! Next month Casey is releasing this fantastic collection of her own recipes in a cookbook called MUM CAN I EAT THIS? A collection of my recipes to share with anyone who requires low fructose, low FODMAP, sucrose free, gluten free, and low or no lactose foods.

The book is a labour of love and tells the story of the absolute struggle this mother went through to get a diagnosis for her daughter. At age five, Keira was suddenly struck down with severe gastro and over the next few months her health began to decline as she became more lethargic and unwell. Her severe constipation went on for months on end and she would wake in the middle of the night spending hours on the toilet shaking and crying. Finally, after countless doctors’ visits, a gastroscopy and Keira missing nearly three months of school - Casey had enough. She requested a hydrogen breath test (a common test used to diagnose issues with digesting fructose) for her daughter trusting her own instincts and independent research about the cause of her daughter’s mystery illness. It turns out she was right, and Keira was finally diagnosed with a fructose intolerance.

In 2014 figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that almost 4 million people in Australia reported avoiding a food type because of allergy or intolerance. Of those, about 560,000 were children aged between two and 18 years. In this group, girls were more likely than boys to be susceptible. Fructose malabsorption, formerly named "dietary fructose intolerance" (DFI), is a digestive disorder in which absorption of fructose is impaired by deficient fructose carriers in the small intestine's enterocytes. This results in an increased concentration of fructose in the entire intestine. Managing an issue with the breakdown of fructose typically includes eliminating fructose from the diet.

Casey says, “This book was a labour of love. When I first found about Keira’s intolerances I was so overwhelmed and had no idea what to feed my daughter. I often thought how great it would be to have a recipe book that would allow her to feel included at school or at Christmas or at a birthday party, so she could finally eat fun foods as well! So, after a gentle push in the right direction from my ever-supportive husband I sat down and collated all my recipes. My hope with this cookbook is to help others out there in the same situation who are struggling to come up with recipes that are quick, simple, delicious and fun. I hope it helps! “

Mum can I eat this offers a collection of fun, tasty and easy to follow recipes - for anyone who requires low fructose, low FODMAP, sucrose free, gluten free, and low or no lactose foods. It also offers a detailed insight into Casey’s story and offers hints and tips for managing life with intolerances.

The book will be available for purchase on Amazon and online bookstores from 10th December 2018.

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Casey Ellis is a Melbourne based mother and student. She is in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts degree with International Relations and Middle East Studies majors and a Politics and Policy Studies minor. This is her first cookbook, created in the hopes of helping parents everywhere. She is passionate about drawing attention to food intolerances and the need for more awareness in this space. Casey is also a wife and mother of two girls

iPhone and Android app uses bilateral stimulation, a treatment element of EMDR, to send even the most anxious and stressed individuals off to dream land.

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2nd October 2018 – Melbourne: With insomnia becoming a problem of epidemic proportions and according to Sleep Health Foundation costing the Australian economy $66 billion in 2016/17, we are in desperate need of a solution. The same report found that almost 40 per cent of Australians don't get enough sleep. The most common unrecognised source of this is severe or chronic stress. In fact, experts no longer consider insomnia a sleeping disorder, but a stress disorder. This month, which is also World Mental Health Month, renowned Australian psychologist Mark Grant is releasing a new mobile app called Sleep Restore, which is helping people around the world find rest through its incorporation of bilateral stimulation - a treatment element of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing).

Sleep Restore is the only app that is designed to address the underlying causes of stress-related insomnia. On first use, Sleep Restore evaluates the issues causing a person to suffer from insomnia such as severe stress or traumatic experiences in their life and then selects a specialized set of audio treatments for them to listen to as they lay down to sleep. A unique feature of the app is bilateral stimulation (bls) which, in effect, creates an auditory illusion that something is moving, which engages the brain and holds attention long enough for a relaxation effect to develop. This effect harnesses the brains survival response to actually reduce stress-related brain activity. Bilateral stimulation has been found to decrease brain activity associated with stress and stimulate brain activity associated with restful sleep.

The Sleep Restore app is free to download on iTunes and in Google Play for most mobile devices including phones and tablets. The free version comes with a complete sleep evaluation tool and six tracks that are 20 minutes long each. The tracks consist of a blend of music, nature sounds, guided mediations and bilateral stimulation. For those who wish to have more options, a premium version is available for around $AUD9.50 (price may vary due to currency fluctuations) for a total of 18 tracks (with bonus tracks). Users who complete a sleep evaluation questionnaire in the app receive 2 free bonus tracks and their sleep data will anonymously be evaluated in ongoing sleep research.

Mark will be launching the app by presenting a free seminar on World Mental Health Day, Wednesday 10th October 2018 at Mingara Recreation Club, Tumbi Umbi at 7pm on stress induced insomnia. Tickets can be obtained through Event Brite or via Mark’s Facebook page.

About Mark Grant:

Mark Grant MA is an Australian clinical psychologist/researcher with 20 years experience in practice. He is particularly interested in the impact of stress on health and the involvement of the brain in stress and is a regular presenter at conferences around the world on the subject. He has researched the application of innovative methods such as EMDR in the treatment of chronic pain and his ideas have been regularly cited in such publications as The New York Times and The Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology. He has created various self-help resources for people suffering from chronic pain anxiety and now insomnia. These include Change Your Brain Change Your Pain, (book & audio downloads) Anxiety Release (app), Calm and Confident (audio download) and many more. Further information can be found on Mark’s website www.overcomingpain.com

PRESS RELEASE - THEATRE SHOW

Melbourne: 1st October 2018 - Three homegrown Melbourne mums and seasoned theatre performers will hit the road as the Musical Sprouts this October to bring a fresh, fun and interactive new children’s theatre show to selected venues across the city. After enjoying successful careers Bridget a’Beckett, Sharni Page and Julia Davis became mothers and began looking for a new way to express themselves creatively within their new lives. This unique collaboration came from a common belief amongst these women that a love of music can shape a life, no matter how little or big! Their debut show entitled ‘A Day in the Life of You’ is written specifically for children aged 2 – 6 years. It addresses the daily challenges of growing up, like learning to brush teeth, get dressed, clean up and go to the toilet and features original songs, live instruments, dancing and lots of audience participation.

The show promises to quickly capture the attention of its audiences as each of these women are highly accomplished performers. Julia Davis is a graduate of WAAPA has worked and toured with companies such as the Sydney Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Bell Shakespeare Theatre Company and Monkey Baa. Sharni is an award-winning voiceover artist and a qualified psychodramatist and her diversity as a performer stretches from theatre appearing in productions like Cabaret and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, through film and television. Bridget is a musician, composer and her musical career extends across many creative genres including professional theatre, the live music scene, community arts and theatre production. As a performer Bridget has also appeared in various musicals including Cabaret alongside Tina Arena.

Creator, Bridget a’Beckett says,” I assumed my music making days were over when I gave birth. I was so tired and thought I would never have a new idea again. Then I sang to my tantrumming child and realised I had the power of hypnotism. I could feel her body relax in my arms and listen, and I realised that music still has that effect on me as an adult. I can escape stress through music. Why wouldn't I want pass such a valuable tool onto my kids?”

Brunswick Mechanics Institute will host the publicity launch of the show on Tuesday 16th October commencing at 2pm. The tour will encompass several small theatres and community venues across Melbourne from October to December 2018, with performances scheduled in the Stonnington area in March 2019. Tickets and tour information can be found at www.musicalsprouts.com.au

“A Day in the Life of You” is supported by the City of Stonnington, Auspicious Arts Projects and the City of Moonee Valley.

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Who are the Musical Sprouts?

Musical Sprouts is the creation of three professional musical theatre performers – Bridget A’Beckett, Sharni Page and Julia Davis. After enjoying successful careers in their chosen professions these three women became mothers and found themselves looking for a new way to express themselves creatively within their new lives. This unique collaboration came from a common belief amongst these women that a love of music can shape a life, no matter how little or big! They are passionate, seasoned performers whose aim is to consistently provide high quality musical experiences for young children in order to enhance their understanding of music, theatre, creativity and feed their imagination!

Their 2018 Musical Sprouts show entitled A Day in the Life of You is written specifically for children aged 2 – 6 years. It addresses the daily challenges of growing up like learning to brush teeth, get dressed, clean up and go to the toilet and features original songs, live instruments, dancing and lots of audience participation!

PRESS RELEASE

IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 23rd August 2018 - Melbourne:

Within the Australian retail trade, Ted Todd is a bit of a legend. His cartooned face is recognised all over Australia and is still used for advertising campaigns decades after his sale of his business, Ted’s Cameras. However, like most successful people there is a tale to tell …one that helped shape the man behind the cartoon. Born in Hungary in 1941 Ted’s childhood was plagued by heartbreak, poverty and turmoil as Hitler’s Nazi occupation began to grip his homeland and his surviving family was forced into life in the Jewish ghetto. His survival alongside his mother through the war, his life as a refugee in a camp in Austria and his eventual immigration to Australia in the 1950s, resulted in the self-made man we know today.

So, after Ted’s 25-year marriage broke up he set out on his journey into singledom with many high hopes and some misgivings. Where does a 50 something year old man go to meet a woman these days? Get on the net? Go to bars? Join a tennis club? Ask friends? Ted did all of the above….and then he wrote a book about it. The book entitled 50 something Male, fit self-employed, GSOH looking for charming, intelligent, good looking woman… is a series of sad, funny and raunchy short stories about middle aged men navigating the world of modern relationships. With this book Ted aims to show that men are just as vulnerable as women however in different ways and examine relationships between men and women at more mature age.

In 2013 the median age of divorced men in Australia was 44 years old and in nearly half of those cases (47.4%) this involved children under the age of 18. This second chance at life and love is something that has piqued public interest in Australia in recent times and we have watched many high-profile men in Australia navigate this journey in the public eye.

Ted says, ““I’m so looking forward to sharing this book with readers. This has been a long deeply personal journey and it is wonderful to finally be at this point as this book has been in the making for over ten years. After my marriage broke down I experienced some of the angst, fun and bloody-minded mistakes we all tend to make at a time like that. I also experienced the loneliness, being totally lost and the desperate need to put life back together. I hope that this book will show that men are just as vulnerable as women however in different ways. …and that compatibility in a relationship is the most important issue; not compromise. “

50 something Male offers a refreshing outlook on love, sex and intimate relationships that many of us will be able to recognise ourselves in and relate to parts of. The book demonstrates what Ted and his friends feel most men want. All the stories are fiction … or are inspired by the experiences of Ted and his research talking to single men over 50.

This book will appeal to men and women over 40 who are somewhat curious about what life, love and relating with a member of the opposite sex is all about.

Ted will be launching the book on Wednesday 5th September 2018 at Readings in St Kilda.

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About the Author:

Ted Todd was born in Hungary in 1941. After the Holocaust and the following Stalinist years, he escaped Hungary with his mother and younger brother in 1956 after the Hungarian revolution. He currently lives in Melbourne where in 1970 he established a well-known retail chain, Ted’s Camera stores. Since the sale of the business, Ted has facilitated sales and marketing workshops and consultancies at the Australian Institute of Management and other venues, operated other businesses, and has concurrently facilitated ‘Human Relationships’ courses for the past 33 years.

Ted was married for 25 years and is now divorced with three children and eight grandchildren.

In more recent times Ted returned to tertiary studies, attaining a B.A. and a Grad. Dip. in Human Relationships Education, and a Ph.D. in Literature/Creative Writing.

Now Dr. Ted he has written several books, including The Secrets of Successful Selling on sales, marketing and communications, A Doubtful Inheritance (a work of fiction), The Software of the Personality and more.

PRESS RELEASE

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

9 th August 2018 - Melbourne: In 1941, Ted Todd’s father was taken as part of an alliance between Hungary and Nazi Germany during WW2. Like most able bodied young Jewish men in Hungary at this time, he was drafted into the Jewish Labour Service to perform forced labour during the Holocaust. A large percentage of these men were sent with the Hungarian Second Army to the occupied territories of the Soviet Union and subjected to grinding brutality on the front. Some 80% never returned home, falling prey to battle, disease, Soviet captivity or murder at hands of Hungarian soldiers. Ted’s father was one of these men.

During this time his mother, who was an incredible survivor not only looked after her family in Budapest Jewish ghetto, but she managed to bribe their way off the train to Auschwitz on three separate occasions. Many years later these extraordinary tales of survival have been passed down by Ted to his family and in turn have led to the creation of his astonishing book which has been inspired by these events. The book entitled, “A Doubtful Inheritance”, falls under a new genre which Ted calls an ‘autobiofiction’. He describes this as blend of true events, overlaid with a heavy dollop of imaginary plotline.

The book follows the story of a man called Tim who is over 50, divorced, and very unhappy. Tim has spent his life searching for something missing in his psyche and on a whim decides to participate in a workshop on self-awareness. There he comes face to face with this obsession about the traumatic disappearance of his beloved father Lajos during WW2. What follows is a sweeping, multi-layered tale about Tim’s search for a rich inheritance and his lost sense of self and meaning. The action of the book crosses the globe as it moves through history, from a WW2 Siberian POW camp through to a present-day Budapest, Vienna, Argentina and Australia.

Ted says, “This was an incredibly difficult book to write and is inspired by some of the terrible things that my family in Budapest experienced during the Second World War. The best way to describe how these events have influenced the book is to say that everything in the book that is sad is true… and all of the happy elements are fiction. I hope to leave this novel as a legacy for my children and for their children so that they don’t forget where their ancestors came from and what they went through to get here.”

A Doubtful Inheritance provides a deep insight into not only one of darkest periods in human history but also to the entirely relatable journey of a man trying to find his own sense of self after the loss of his father. This novel was also part of Ted’s work for his PhD in literature/writing at Swinburne University in 2014.

This book will appeal to men and women who are lovers of history as well as those who enjoy stories about the trials and tribulations of life.

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About the Author:

Ted Todd was born in Hungary in 1941. After the Holocaust and the following Stalinist years, he escaped Hungary with his mother and younger brother in 1956 after the Hungarian revolution. He currently lives in Melbourne where in 1970 he established a well-known retail chain, Ted’s Camera stores. Since the sale of the business, Ted has facilitated sales and marketing workshops and consultancies at the Australian Institute of Management and other venues, operated other businesses, and has concurrently facilitated ‘Human Relationships’ courses for the past 33 years. Ted was married for 25 years and is now divorced with three children and eight grandchildren. In more recent times Ted returned to tertiary studies, attaining a B.A. and a Grad. Dip. in Human Relationships Education, and a Ph.D. in Literature/Creative Writing. Now Dr. Ted he has written several books, including The Secrets of Successful Selling on sales, marketing and communications, 50 something male (a work of fiction), The Software of the Personality and more.

PRESS RELEASE - FILM RELEASE

Gold Coast: 8th May 2018 - Award-winning Gold Coast author, Benjamin Allmon and Bundjalung-Yugambeh canoe maker, Kyle Slabb have collaborated with renowned photographer David Kelly and former ABC producer and filmmaker Jeff Licence to document their epic 70km three-day sea journey following an ancient First Nations maritime trade route in traditional canoes. This treacherous sea voyage has connected the Goories or Saltwater People across the water from the Gold Coast to North Stradbroke Island for thousands of years. The Saltwater Story documents Benjamin’s passage into a piece of First Nations culture that is rarely offered to someone outside of the Bundjalung/Yugambeh people. This voyage with Kyle and his family has resulted in stunning documentary, a beautiful coffee table book as well as an exhibition which will launch on Friday 18th May 2018 at HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast.

The inspiration for the project was a balance between black and white, which is beautifully reflected in the book’s black and white images that have been masterfully collected by David Kelly. The inclusion of a unique group of young Bundjalung, Yugambeh and Quandamooka men in this project provides viewers with a rare insight into a rite of passage for the next generation. The result is a story of connection, collaboration and cooperation – not just between the BundjalungYugambeh people and the Quandamooka people, but between generations, between black and white, between land, sky and sea. It is also a story of continuance – of ancient knowledge now held by just a few who are ensuring that tomorrow’s elders are brought along for the journey today.

HOTA, Home of the Arts will host the launch on Friday 18th May commencing at 5.30pm in the Lawn Bar with the exhibition, followed by a screening of the documentary at 6.30pm. The event will feature selected photos from the journey as well as the canoe that was built by hand for the project by The Saltwater Story crew.

With HOTA, Home of the Arts coming on as an Official Foundation Partner, The Saltwater Story is also supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. The Saltwater Story has also received funding as part of the The Regional Arts Development Fund which is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

Producer & Writer, Benjamin Allmon says. “This project has been the last four years of my life. Not long after becoming a Dad I realised that if my son asked me one day about the indigenous history of the Gold Coast, I wouldn’t know what to say. So, I decided to find out. The book starts with this realisation, and goes from there, through years of research, to meeting Kyle, to making the traditional canoes together and then paddling them together. It follows how personally difficult reconciling the two cultures within a project is... and ultimately how rewarding. I am immensely proud that we made the canoes, and that I got to paddle the three-day journey alongside the next generation of Saltwater men... I am deeply and permanently changed by the experience, and I now have a story to tell my son – The Saltwater Story.”

Within the Bundjalung-Yugambeh Language Chain there are many stories of the sea and one of those makes mention that these areas were first settled by the Three Brothers and their descendants. The story tells of three Brothers that arrived by sea in a canoe, establishing fresh water sites, tribal laws, bora rings and traditional knowledge for generations to come.

The Saltwater Story is a true collaboration utilising First Nations locations, government assistance and collaborators from across Australia to engage both the non-First Nation and First Nation communities to ensure this knowledge is transmitted to the next generation. It partners the landscapes of forest with the sea and will culminate in a remarkable legacy that will see the canoes and a portion of the profits from the book returned to the First Nations community - where they can be used for educational purposes, as the basis for cultural tourism or other future projects.

“We are all an accumulation of our stories, we carry them and they are carried to us by many vessels. The Gundal is one of them that carries story to us and carries us into story… this story has been carried by our Ancestors to us, the Gundal carried them into that story and now it will carry us into our story…we will carry it to our Grandchildren and maybe with this knowledge the Gundal will carry them into theirs,” said Kyle Slabb, Canoe Maker & Cultural Liaison.

Benjamin Allmon & members of the cast and crew are available for interview by pre-arrangement. For media enquiries please contact, Aisling Gilhooly, Publicist M: 0424 520 345 | E: aisling@aislingenterprises.com.au.

Bookings for the launch can be made via HOTA, Home of the Arts website: https://hota.com.au/cinema/the-saltwater-story/

The book, e-book and DVD can be purchased at: http://www.benjaminallmon.com/product/the-saltwater-story/