Soul sisters

Lessons learned from illness, disability and heartbreak prompted three sisters to launch wellness retreats for real women of all shapes and sizes. They talk to Nicola Russell about happiness and living a lifeless “perfect”.

- Nicola Russell

Yoga teacher Jennie Jackson, naturopath Coryn Smith and marketer Toni Paltridge know how difficult it is to take time out of a busy life – but a disability, a separation and a cancer diagnosis have led the sisters to reassess time out as a priority, for all women.

Their business, Sista Trio, runs wellness retreats with yoga, meditation, nutrition and lifestyle advice, delivered in an accessible way for a greater range of women.

“This wellness industry can get quite serious,” says middle sister Jennie. “One of our taglines is heart, hilarity, honesty.”

The 49-year-old is the first to admit she is an unlikely yoga teacher. Born with bilateral talipes equinovarus (severe club feet), she had her right ankle manipulated and broken just hours after she was born. It was the first of many surgeries to correct the disability, which in recent years saw her considering amputation.

“It was so debilitating and painful, and it gets you down – mind, body and soul,” she says. “My husband Greg used to have to drop me everywhere, because I only had a certain amount of steps a day before I was toast.”

But in 2015, through a club foot support group on Facebook, Jennie heard from an American woman who was walking pain-free, with a device developed in the US.

“I pondered it for ages and spoke to people all around the world, because it was going to cost 12 grand plus the cost to get over there. Finally I just took the plunge.”

Jennie, husband Greg and son Rocco headed to Washington where, at the Hanger Clinic, Jennie had a mould taken of her leg and a customised device made.

Her orthopaedic surgeon had warned her against it, recommending yet another surgery. “He said, ‘I think you are being seduced by American marketing’ – but he was wrong, it worked,” she says, with the steely resolve that has come from years of battling daily pain.