How to build resilience? Australian who grieved sister’s death learned. Now she teaches it

Kate Gladdin was 20 when her sister was killed in a road accident. Coping with her loss taught her resilience. She shares how to acquire it

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Kate Gladdin, whose grief at the death of her older sister in an accident taught her resilience, shares what she learned in a podcast and a new book, including her “3 Rs for resilience” strategy. Photo: Cooper Photo Co

Published: 12:45pm, 18 Nov 2024Updated: 12:49pm, 18 Nov 2024

Kate Gladdin was 20 years old when she was awakened by a call in the middle of the night: her older sister Nicole had been in a motorbike accident in Thailand. She died hours later.

Plunged into grief and despair, Gladdin was overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness.

The high achiever with a supportive family had grown up in Australia with social pressures and study stresses like most of her peers. Her expectations for herself, however, were unrealistically high. “A bad exam grade or someone else’s negative opinion of me used to crush me,” she says.

After losing her sister – a popular ballerina and aspiring sports newsreader – in October 2012, Gladdin came to realise that adversity is inevitable and the only way to survive it is to push through.

Kate Gladdin (right) pictured with her older sister, Nicole. Photo: Kate Gladdin

She quit her corporate job and, with her family, started the Nicole Fitzsimons Foundation to honour her sister. The charity gives grants to athletes and performers struggling through adversity.

In 2013, she created a travel safety education programme that she delivered to more than 200,000 Australian high-school students, highlighting the consequences of taking risks in foreign countries. It evolved into a resilience and mental health mission for young people, to share what she had learned.