Club Sandwich

Club Sandwich You've got them. We've got you. The community for those caring for ageing parents, and everything else. Real talk. No platitudes or BS.

Weekly podcast, live events across Australia, people who respond at 2am 'same'. Just expert support that works.

19/06/2026

There's exactly one statistic where every country on earth is tied for dead last: the mortality rate, a perfect 100%. You'd think a number that universal would come up at dinner more often.
It doesn't.
A few weeks ago, Dr Kathryn Mannix joined us for a special Club Sandwich Live evening in Sydney. Kathryn is a global campaigner, physician and author of With the End in Mind. Kathryn joined Sarah Macdonald and a warm room full hundreds of people who came to talk about the thing we usually don't. O
What followed was an hour that was honest, warm and - somehow - often very funny: the conversations most of us keep putting off with our mum or dad, and Kathryn's quiet reframe that they're not difficult conversations at all. They're tender ones.
We've released the whole evening as this week's Club Sandwich podcast episode. Have a listen #— then send it to someone who needs it.
🎧 Tender Conversations, live with Dr Kathryn Mannix — out now wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen at clubsandwich.community
Content note: this episode talks about ageing, serious illness, dying and grief. Be gentle with yourself, and come back to it another time if today isn't the day.
You've got them. We've got you. With love, Club Sandwich.

14/06/2026

Teun and Ellie were housemates. He was a young man in his twenties. She was an older woman living with dementia. They shared a home on a nursing-home ward Teun had moved into himself.
One day he drove her to visit her son, Marcel. She walked through the front door and started to cry.
Ten seconds later she said it: "now I finally know where my son lives."
Ellie's dementia had taken the picture of where Marcel's life happened. She never stopped loving him. She just couldn't place him anywhere. And then, standing in his hallway, she could.
It's the whole quiet case Teun makes. Don't keep people somewhere calm and safe and small. Take them out into the world.
She may not remember the visit by evening. Whatever it gave her doesn't leave so easily.
Human Forever with Teun Toebes. Out now. Link in comments, or find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts 🎙️

You can't always see it. That's the hardest part. 🤍Someone you work with, sit beside, love - could be grieving right now...
14/06/2026

You can't always see it. That's the hardest part. 🤍
Someone you work with, sit beside, love - could be grieving right now. Not after a death, but before one.
Watching a parent slip away in pieces. Loving someone while quietly preparing to lose them. There's a name for it: anticipatory grief. And because there's no funeral, no leave, no language for it, most people carry it completely unseen.
If that's you right now: there is nothing broken about you. This pain means you've loved deeply. You're allowed to grieve someone who is still here.
Melissa Reader, wrote a piece on what anticipatory grief really feels like for Wellbeing Magazine this month, and we are sharing it on Substack. Melissa explores why it hurts so much, and how to care for yourself through it. 🔗 Link in comments.
Save this for when you need it, or send it to someone who does. 🤍

12/06/2026

"Even if they don't remember who you were yesterday, being held is something they rarely get anymore."
This week Sarah Macdonald sits down with Teun Toebes, who spent three and a half years living in a dementia ward as a housemate. What struck her most was how present he is — the cuddles, the held hands, the simple act of crossing a barrier most people are too afraid to cross. 💛
Because there is a lot of love in care. Sometimes it's just a hand to hold.
Brought to you by - proactive local care that helps your parents live well at home. Less worry for you, more time for the important stuff.
Episode 18: Human Forever with Teun Toebes. Out now wherever you get your podcasts. All episodes also available on Youtube.

12/06/2026

One nursing home spent over 10,000 euros (AUD $16,500)in a single year. On plastic plants.

Real plants weren't allowed. The reason? Someone living with dementia might eat one. So a real plant becomes a risk and a fake one becomes policy.

Teun Toebes lived in a dementia ward for three and a half years and watched this logic play out everywhere. A system so fixed on safety and control that it quietly strips a home of the things that make it feel alive. Real plants. A dog. A bit of mess.

As he puts it, it's not about how much money is in the system. It's about what we choose to do with it. Choose lively environments over risk assessments.

Full episode out now. Wherever you get your favourite podcasts. Also on Youtube at .community


10/06/2026

At 21, Teun Toebes did something most of us would never consider. He moved into the locked dementia ward of a nursing home and lived there for three and a half years, as a housemate rather than a visitor.
What he learned changed how he sees everything about dementia care. His line has stayed with us: "looking differently always leads to doing differently." If we change the way we see people living with dementia, we change the way we treat them and the policies we build around them.
If you're caring for a parent with dementia, or watching the system from the inside, this conversation with Sarah will challenge a few of your assumptions and a few of your feelings.
New episode of Club Sandwich out this Thursday.

09/06/2026

We keep telling ourselves we'll have the conversation "in the future." Then a crisis arrives, and nobody's ready. ☕
Dr Kathryn Mannix and Melissa Reader joined Weekend Today to talk about the conversations we need to have with our ageing parents — and the help the Put the Kettle On guide can give families facing them.
In this clip, Kathryn shares her guidance: it's not about taking over or over-parenting them. It's about saying, "You could help me by having this conversation."
You keep them in the role they've always had — the parent. The person who taught you to hold a spoon. You're just opening the curtains and letting the light in.
That's the heart of Put the Kettle On — a free guide for the conversation to have at the kitchen table, not in the hospital corridor. It starts gently: "Mum, Dad, what does a good day look like for you?"
👉 Grab the free guide at putthekettleon.com.auPut the kettle on with your parents. It can be a wonderful opportunity for real connection. 💛

It’s about living well in a different season of life, and it begins with one gentle question — "Mum, Dad, what does a good day look like for you?"
From there it opens up what matters most: independence and agency, who they want beside them for big decisions, the important documents (power of attorney, will, enduring guardian), and the story and legacy they want remembered.
👉 It's free. Download it at putthekettleon.com.au

08/06/2026

"Mum, Dad — what does a good day look like for you?" ☕
It's a simple question. But for so many of us, it's the one we never quite get around to asking. Then we find ourselves in a hospital corridor, stressed, vulnerable with almost no idea of what matters most to our parents as they age.
Put the Kettle On is a free guide to help Aussie families have that conversation at the kitchen table, not in the hospital corridor. It's not about taking over. It's about understanding what living well looks like for your parents in this season of life — while there's still time to ask.
The guide gently walks you through what matters most:
☕ What independence and agency look like for them now
☕ Who they want beside them when big decisions need to be made
☕ The important documents — power of attorney, will, enduring guardian
☕ Their story and the legacy they want remembered
People worry these chats will bring up sadness. More often, what comes up is relief — and families end up closer than before.
👉 It's free. Grab it at putthekettleon.com.au and put the kettle on this weekend. 💛




08/06/2026

Bianca Dye is caring solo for her mum, Annie, 81, living with dementia. Annie had a tough childhood and carried a lot of trauma. And Bianca describes the shift that changed everything for her: when she hugs her mum now, she's not hugging "the dementia," or the woman who can be difficult. She's hugging little Annie … the frightened kid who never got enough of it.
So many of us are caring for parents who weren't always there for us. It's complicated, and it's hard, and there's grief in it. But as Bianca, there can also be a strange kind of healing.

Have a listen. This one stays with you. 🎧
Episode 19 — "One Text Away From Falling Apart” with Bianca Dye — is out now wherever you get your podcasts.
(This episode touches on dementia and mental health. Support: National Dementia Helpline 1800 100 500 • Lifeline 13 11 14.)

What a weekend! Melissa Reader, CEO of Vera and Commissioning Editor of Club Sandwich joined Weekend Today with the wond...
07/06/2026

What a weekend! Melissa Reader, CEO of Vera and Commissioning Editor of Club Sandwich joined Weekend Today with the wonderful Dr Kathryn Mannix, Michael Atkinson and Alison Piotrowski to talk about something most of us quietly avoid — the conversations we need to have with our ageing parents.
That's exactly why we created Put the Kettle On. It's a free guide, built around five simple questions worth asking your mum or dad — about what they want, what they worry about, and what matters most to them. No pressure, no guilt. Just a cup of tea and an honest chat at the kitchen table.
Kathryn has flown in from the UK for just one week, and her message says it all: these conversations can feel hard to start, but they don't have to be. There's often real relief. These conversations are a gift to everyone around the table.

Don't wait for a crisis to have them.
ownload the free guide now at putthekettleon.com.au
Put the kettle on this weekend — and start the conversation.

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