John Killalea – Site Co-Founder and Administrator
John has worked in a number of different areas including finance, insurance and
communications. In his 20s and 30s he was active in a number of sports such as cross country running, orienteering, squash and windsurfing. However, work and family commitments meant that this activity gradually dwindled away and the sum total of his physical activity soon consisted of taking the family dog for a 30 minute walk each evening. Following discussions with a friend on health, fitness, well-being and lifestyle generally, they decided to set up a website which would provide helpful and easy to read information for people in a similar situation to themselves. The website is www.goodfoodtalking.com and John hopes it will inspire people who know they should be doing more about their health.
Cathal Cregg – Adventurer, Fitness Speaker and Site Co-Founder
Cathal started serving his time as a stonecutter/carver in 1979. Over the following 35 years (and with the help of others) he has built a large business. This took years of hard work with long hours and not much thought for his health or well-being. He had a great love for running, especially mountain running. Through intensive training he was very successful, winning many events and even breaking world records along the way. In his mid-forties he slowed down from running every day to twice a week at most.
He put on a lot of excess weight and was cutting back on training because he was so busy with work. Then, at age 48 Cathal was hospitalised with a Kidney Stone and boy was it painful! Because he had neglected to act quickly and did not take proper aftercare, he lay in a hospital bed in great pain for two weeks. It was then that he had his ‘Eureka Moment’. He could be sick and in and out of hospital (like his father was for 20 years) and then die with no real life or no living of life.
Right then he decided to find out what makes our bodies tick – and he did.
It did not take long to discover that nutrition was the key. He spent the next 3 years digging deeply into the subject and gaining a qualification as a Nutritional Advisor. The biggest thing he wants to do now is to share this knowledge from one who thought nutrition meant nothing in life to now knowing that it means everything.
Dr Jackelina Pando Kelly – Clinical Lecturer Paediatrics
Jackie graduated as a Medical doctor at “San Martin de Porres University”- Medical School in Lima – Peru, in 2000.
She joined the Specialist Registrar training in Paediatrics with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2005 after obtaining her MRCPCH (Membership, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health)
She completed a Masters in Medical Science at National University Galway in 2008 and a Fellowship in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada 2008-2010. During her Fellowship, she conducted clinical work with children with Infectious Diseases in Nepal and South Africa.
In 2009 Dr Jackie obtained a grant from the International Society of Nephrology to run the first Screening Program in Children for prevention of chronic renal disease and hypertension in the Peruvian Andes, which started in 2010.
In December 2010, she completed her CCST (Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training) in Paediatrics with theRoyal College of Physicians of Ireland and joined the Department of Paediatrics at University College Cork as a Clinical Lecturer.
In 2016 she completed a Masters in Higher Education at University College Cork.
Dr Jackie currently works as a Clinical Lecturer at University College Cork in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, and as a Paediatric doctor in the Paediatric Outpatients Department at Cork University Hospital. She also provides support to a rural hospital in the Andes in Peru (“Mama Ashu Hospital – Chacas“ ) where she works for a month every year and takes Medical students for an Elective rotation there.
Disclosure: All the comments /advice/opinions submitted by Dr Jackie to this site are personal and they do not necessarily reflect the position of the Institutions she works for.
Elizabeth (Betty) A Cregg – Wellness Consultant
Betty’s background is in Mental Health Nursing where she qualified in 1980.To broaden her knowledge during the next years, she completed four Diplomas in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin Ireland. These included Psychology, Pathology, Anatomy, and Teaching & Assessing in Clinical Practice. She later completed a Counselling skills Diploma at NUI Maynooth.
It was here she became interested in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and proceeded to complete a two year course in CBT at NUI Galway. As the profession of nursing evolved over the years she went on to complete a Degree in Nursing in 2002. Equipped with this broad span of knowledge she decided to pursue her dream career and undertook a Masters Programme in Counselling and Psychotherapy at Dublin City University where she graduated in 2008.
Currently Betty is an accredited therapist with the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. She works with couples and individuals who present with varying problems such as depression, anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and relationship issues. Over the years she has become highly aware of the importance of nutrition and lifestyle in helping the person recover and regain control over their lives. It is this awareness which brings her a sense of delight to support and welcome the Good Food Talking initiative.
Siobhan Curley
Siobhan has a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Limerick and she has always had a strong interest in the “the science of the body”. Moving into technical sales and sales management allowed her to develop skills in taking technical information and presenting it in a clear and simple way which can be understood by the sometimes non-scientific person.
Siobhan developed a keen interest in the science of nutrition and its effects on the body through reading and self-study. She completed a Clean Detox in 2010 and, while the science element could be explained, the overall sense of well-being, better sleep, lack of cravings and overall better mood prompted deeper study.
She has now completed a 4 year diploma in Nutritional Therapy. Siobhan has a particular interest in one to one nutritional consultations, functional medicine to determine the root cause of dysfunction, meditation for stress relief and all things gut related!