I’m trying my best to find the positives ...
PRUDENCE WADE chats to the radio presenter and author Gemma Cairney about her obsession with cold water swimming and how to stay positive during lockdown
FEW people are genuinely infectious, but not everyone is Gemma Cairney. The 35-year-old presenter has been on our screens and airwaves for a decade, finding time between her BBC radio gigs to write advice books. Along the way, she’s made a name for herself as being upbeat and sunny – in everything from her laugh down to the colourful clothes she wears.
“I think I’ve always been a positive person,” she says, but admits, “it gets potentially more difficult, because we just start to worry more as we get older.”
A positive outlook hasn’t stopped Gemma from speaking about serious issues during her decade in the public eye.
“I never had a moment in my career where I thought, ‘Oh, I have to speak about mental health’. I’ve always talked about mental health in my personal life, because I’ve been around people...” Here Gemma – who’s never lost for words – trails off, perhaps because we chatted not long after friend Caroline
Flack took her own life.
“I’ve seen a lot of stuff,” she says eventually. “So it was never alien to me to talk about mental health, even though it’s become more of a trend to do so – which I don’t think is a bad thing.”
One thing which has shifted over the decade is Gemma’s approach to her own mental health.
“It’s just become a bit more serious,” the presenter says. “I have a massive imagination and I really am a massive romantic. I’ve done things and seen things that I never would have imagined, like climbing Mount Kenya, cycling from London to Paris or visiting different African countries. Really special things that I cherish and I’m so proud of, that have given me such huge perspective on things.
“At the same time, I’ve realised that I’m not completely an extrovert. But also [it’s good] to be introverted; to be in solitude, to relax, to be sad, to be in nature, to seek the right path of therapy, to not get lost in excess. All these other things I’m learning are also important.”
This means Gemma is increasingly reminding herself to slow down and take care of herself. This is where cold water swimming comes in, which “sort of changed my life”, she says.
Five years ago Gemma moved from London to near the sea, saying: “In pure joy I moved out of the city and fell in love with the sunsets of the southeast coast of England. I went swimming all the time because I could see the sea.”
Plenty of studies have been done on the positive mental impacts of cold water swimming – one published in the British Medical Journal found it reduced symptoms of depression. She started jumping into the water with a group of people every morning, a ritual she loved because “it’s got nothing to do with our phones, it’s got nothing to do with money, social status”.
After this, she explains she “got sort of addicted to cold water swimming”.
Gemma says: “I was travelling so much for work, so I would be like, ‘Right, where is the body of water I can jump into?’ because it was something so familiar – even if I was in unfamiliar territory.”
Although she’s now moved back to the capital, the presenter’s love of swimming remains – and enthusiasm bubbles through every word. “I really am a classic Pisces,” she says. “I’ve got my head in the clouds, and I love to get lost in nature. Especially if there are friends around as well, it’s a good combination.” Even if she can’t jump into water at a moment’s notice, Gemma is the type of person to find beauty in day-to-day life.
When we spoke she was nesting at home, drinking ginger and making playlists.
“I think there are so many different ways that we can actually make people feel a little bit better. Even though we’re not medical experts, but in terms of reaching out and emotionally. Really simple, nice, fundamental human stuff.”
Right now, Gemma is focusing on things which make her happy – be it reading, listening to music or cooking. She’s currently dipping into the Buddha’s Book of Daily Meditations by Christopher Titmus, which she feels particularly poignant as she turns 35.
“I was given it years ago, probably when I really needed it, in my early 20s,” she says, laughing. “This stuff is so personal – what we do to make ourselves feel good – but it’s really nice to read positive words.
“I’m trying my hardest in hard times to find the positives in stuff,” she says – and that’s all any of us can really do.
It was never alien to me to talk about mental health. Gemma Cairney