tim_2_09-22-2025_090402

Helen Nolan, CEO of Shane Lawn Legacy, shares how the foundation started after Shane Warne's passing. They focus on providing free health checks to raise awareness for preventable diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Partnered with Sisu Health, they bring testing stations to events and locations, with a notable increase in men getting checked since Shane's legacy began. The initiative launched quickly in November, with a successful start at the Boxing Day test, sending 106 people with high risk factors to seek medical help. Well, welcome to the grass is greener, Helen Nolan, CEO of the Shane Lawn Legacy. How are you, Helen? I'm very well, Tim. Thank you for having me. Oh, it's great to have you in here. Now before we get started, we might even just tell a little story here because the reason why Helen and I sort of know each other, we do but we don't, is we used to see each other at the dog park. Our dogs are the same age and we've actually got Indy, she's a Border Collie, isn't she? Yes, she is. She's in the studio with us today. She comes everywhere with me. I didn't bring my dog but the funny thing is we just got talking around the dog park and then hadn't seen you for many years and then recently chatted in the street and funnily enough when I sent Helen this message, she said that I was in her phone as Tim Park. So there you go. So who is Tim Park? There you go. So awesome, Helen, that you come in to have a chat about Shane Lawn Legacy and how it's helping everyday Australians. Before we do that, I'd love you to tell our listeners a bit about yourself and about the legacy as well if you want to. Where do I start? Wherever you want. You're going to have to cut this bit out because I'm going to think about what I'm saying, sorry. Well, I run the Shane Lawn Legacy which is not yet two years old. Yes. We are two in November 28th. In 2023, we launched on the 28th of November to the paper without a real plan but we had a dream. Yes. So to go back on that, I was Shane's personal assistant for off and on for 20 years. Yes, amazing. Yes. So I mean, I had a couple of breaks in there. It was a big job. Yes. And when Shane sadly left this world, he was obviously in Thailand and there was a man called Andrew Neafetu who was there with him who was Shane's manager. He had three managers. So there was James Erskine in Sydney, Michael Cohen in the UK and Andrew Neafetu also known as Neo in Melbourne. And so the four of us worked with Shane for – everyone was with him for decades. So he had – anyone around him work-wise was around for a very long time. Yes. So yes, Neo was with Shane in Thailand and he remembers thinking it can't end like this, like he had such a big life. And after he passed away and we got through the first few months, Neo had an idea where he thought Shane always at his core really wanted to give back. So he always wanted to give back. And in fact, it was – I think since his passing, it has been – the media have talked about that. Yes. Probably wasn't known before. No. Before he was here, his headlines were better if they were bad. Do you know what I mean? Yes. Which is pretty unfair. But he copped it and that's what made him who he is, I guess. But yes, he always wanted to give back. So Neo talks about starting a legacy and giving back. We didn't really know what that looked like. We talked with Shane's family and the executives of his will and we shaped the Shane Warne legacy. And we had an idea one night. Well, we were talking about what we could do and we thought giving free health checks to the Australian public was a great idea, but how do we do it? And I remember calling my cousin one night after a couple of drinks. He's a cardiologist in Sydney. Yes. St. Vincent's. And I said to him, this is what we're thinking. You know, it's confidential. What do you think? He said, I think that'll make a real impact. I'll introduce you to Jason Kovacic, professor at Victor Chang Research. So we had a meeting with him. We were talking to Victor Chang about how to do it. We almost signed an agreement with them. They're brilliant and they're really good supporters of ours, but we ended up getting an email from another person called Dr Noel Duncan who owned and founded Sisu Health. He has sold his business to Wesfarmers Health. So Sisu is a division of Wesfarmers Health and they own the health check machine. So we teamed up with them. So they already had the machine. Yes. So they already had the machines, but we have brought more awareness towards the machines with Shane's name and it has resonated. And the way we work is they're expensive. So to lease them costs a lot of money. So we have teamed up with La Trobe Health Services, who are our founding partner, who supported us. We went to them. They supported us on an idea. And then Diabetes Australia have come on board because they want to raise awareness for diabetes. The link to diabetes is linked to heart disease as well as stroke. I'm learning so much. I am a novice in the health department, but what I've learnt in the last few years is unbelievable and the link between everything in our bodies. Yes. That's right. Well, I guess what you're bringing is the Shane Warne legacy brings that profile to it. And these groups, I guess, are always struggling with profile, aren't they? They've got the tools as they probably had the tools. And now, so it's a mutual partnership, I guess, that's working for everyone. Yes. Yes. Let's touch on the health part because we've even got insurers that we work with. I know AIA, for example, calls these non-communicable diseases. Things that are preventable. Yes. It's just that the way we live and our lifestyle takes us down this road where we have heart disease or we become obese or we get diabetes and that sort of thing. Yes. Yes. I think that's really what the machines are there for, isn't it? Really to pick up on these risk factors. Yes. We're not trying to replace GPs. It's more like one of the things I've learned since Shane passed is that high blood pressure has no symptoms. So no one's going to book the doctor for no reason, especially if it's expensive. Unless you're testing for it, is what you mean. You can see it on the reader that it says you've got high blood pressure, but you don't feel it, do you? No. But if you don't see that reader or you haven't ... Statistics are showing us, the data shows that 50% of people, I think it's 49, 50% of people, haven't had their blood pressure checked in 12 months. Yes. So it's crazy because we don't know. You could be walking around fine and then you've got high blood pressure. What this machine tests for, we've got them in price line around Australia, like always on, but we also take them to events, big sporting events. Yes. So we take the test to the people, which is especially guys, no offence. Yes, it's true. The data does show, so I'm backed by that. They're not good. They're not good. I tell this story because we do a lot of life insurance applications and when I'm sitting with a female doing that, we'll get to that thing where it's when's the last time you went to the doctor. You can normally tell you because it was in the last few months. They could give you the number of the doctor and the doctor's name. The guys would go, I think I went a couple of years ago. Well, it ends up being about five years ago that they went. They don't even know the name of the doctor or the practice. So it's like that, they really don't go and that's part of the pattern, isn't it? Well, it is and that's why Shane's name has resonated so much because I think people would say they look at Shane and he was in everyone's backyard. So people felt like they knew him whether they did or didn't and they think, well, he was at the prime of his life. He was happy. He was healthy. It can happen to him. It can happen to me. And CISO Health data has shown a rise in men since Shane Warne Legacy came on board that they've never seen in 20 years. So it's the middle between 34 and 55. Don't quote me exactly. It could be one or two off, but it's around that. I'm pretty sure I'm right. But 34 to 55, they've had an increase of 77%. Wow. That's huge. On the machines? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stations, they're called. Stations. Yeah. Yes. I keep calling them machines, but yeah. After Shane died, there was a 62% increase in males getting their health checked. Yeah. That's just, it's crazy. So, you know, we used to think Shane would leave a legacy on the pitch, but we think- Yeah. This is it. Well, I mean, tell us a little bit about when you, I think I loved when you said we'd just do it on Boxing Day 2023. Well, you've just said that it launched in November. Yes. So you've just launched it in November. To the paper, yeah. Said we're going to start it, and then just turned up less than a month later at Boxing Day with the testing. Yeah. It sounds like we just turned up. There was a lot of work involved, but we had partnered with, when we had the idea, we partnered with Fox Sports, who Shane worked with for a long time, and then Channel 7 wanted on board, and then News Corp, Herald Sun, because Shane had, again, long relationships with all of them. Yeah. So we talked to them, told them our idea. They said, we're on, we're on board, whatever we can do to help. So we were then talking to Cricket Australia, and we hadn't got anything down pat yet, but we had an idea, and then we decided it's 2023, which was Shane's number, we have to launch this year, and it was getting late in the piece, so it was the end of November. So we spoke to News Corp and just said, we're launching, because we've got a plan B. Plan A was about Boxing Day test. Plan B was keeping it quiet. Yeah. We did have a plan B. Yeah. So we launched the paper, and we had been talking to Cricket Australia, but it kind of fast-tracked it, and we had three weeks to organize it, and we went to Boxing Day test. We had 23 health stations around Boxing Day. That day, 106 people were sent away from the cricket with high risk factors, straight to your GP or hospital. Don't even go to the cricket. Yeah. You're out. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. So, yeah, we couldn't believe it. I remember saying- Well, if you could choose a day that you probably wouldn't like to turn up and get tested, it would be Boxing Day, wouldn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh, fantastic. Yeah. So there was, I think we did, again, don't quote me, but it was something like 9,500 checks, which- Over those days. Yeah. The first four days of the Boxing Day test in 2023. 2024, we had more time to organize. We had 52 health stations last year. We hope to have the same this year. So we just have to- And more, obviously, more profile by then, and awareness, and that sort of thing. Yeah. And what's the plan for this year? So- Yeah. 52, but we've also included now lipids, which is blood testing, fingerprint blood testing. So if you have the health check and you have risk factors for that, you can get triage straight to get a fingerprint blood test- Oh, yeah. ... which can diagnose their type 2 diabetes and things like that. And people have been really surprised. So these health stations are not a diagnostic tool. They just have your blood pressure, heart rate. They do your BMI, height and weight. Yes. Yep. Obviously, you've mentioned blood pressure. Yeah. Yeah. Bloods. Yeah. Not the detailed bloods. It's the initial assessment on the blood. It's all free. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you to our founding partner, La Trobe Health Services and Diabetes Australia, who are our health partner. But yeah, they both fund it. So we market it as free, which it is. It's free to the public, but it costs a lot to do. We've ended up now becoming the largest health screening event in Australian history. Wow. And is this going to be at Melbourne? I know we've done them. So the South Australian government, Peter Malinowski, the Premier of South Australia, I wish he was a Prime Minister, but anyway, he saw what we did at Boxing Day and contacted us and CC Health and said, we want to do it. Right. I'd love it. At Gather Round. So we've done Gather Round for two years in a row. It works at the big events that are long. Yeah. We used to do it at the football AFL, but it's too short. It's too short. Yeah. Like you can't. So Gather Round's perfect because they have all day festivals. Yeah. Multiple games at the one event, at the one venue. And people are hanging around, going to different things over a few days, aren't they? It's brilliant. If you haven't been, it's amazing. No, I've never been actually. It's amazing. Four days over there in Adelaide. And I think, did I read in the report, Helen kindly sent me, I think it was a wrap-up report from Boxing Day last year. Yeah. And I was quite impressed to read about, it's like a real-time dashboard or something like that. Yeah. And tell us a little bit about that and how that works with the CC Health app. Wow. Are you showing me in here now? Awesome. I should probably download it myself. Yeah, you can download the CC Health app. And what you do is you go then, you can go to our website, ShameWornLegacy.com, and you can find the closest health check to you. Yes, I did go on there and have a look at it. Oh, you did? So that's good. Yeah. So you just put your postcode, you go ShameWornLegacy.com, put your postcode in, and it will tell you where your closest health check is, which will be at a price line. Yeah. And you can just- How many price lines have got them now? Around 320. Oh, wow. A lot. Around Australia. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we really, and our partners really care. Yeah. So they want to get around to regional, and I can't say the word rural. Rural. Regional country. They want to get around to the country. But, yeah, it just takes time, like everything does. So once you download the app- Yep. Yep. You go into price line, you scan a QR code- And then does it keep a history of that as well? Yes, it does. Yeah, that's cool, isn't it? So if you look at mine, you can see there- Yeah. It's got all green. I should have gone and done it before you came in, didn't I? I've got to go and do it. No, you should have, because it's a traffic light system. Yeah. So I'm all green. I like that. But you can go then into there, and it will give you a graph of each time you've done it, how your weight's going up or down. So you- I think that's important, because I know that when I went to my last check-up- Oh, it's gone up. That the doctor is, they even said, look, we're less worried about, unless, as you said, you're one of the 106 people that get turned away. Yeah. It's not about tracking progression and showing trends. It's like, well, your blood pressure's going up over time, or your weight's going up over time. It starts to paint a picture for people, and I just even think having to sit and eyeball those numbers- Oh, yeah. I've just eyeballed mine. Yeah. It's funny. How did that happen? But you're all green. I'm all green, but my weight's gone up anyway. Oh, no. It's awesome. And even people who are starting exercise, they can go and do this, and do it every month, and track it. Yeah. They also get their health check for free. But the other thing is, we've had people do the health check, and they've changed their lives. That is impact. Yeah. I was talking to a guy the other day, and a woman, one guy lost 78 kilos since doing a gather round. Wow. The app gives you recipes, it gives you challenges to do, so it's not all about heart disease. Yeah. They're all connected. So, losing weight, lifestyle factors, changes your risk of getting type 2 diabetes, which then lowers your risk of getting- Which is big. Heart disease and stroke. And we know that type 2 is, it's weight, it's diet. It can be lifestyle, yeah. Yeah. Lifestyle, but weight quite often is in there as well. Yeah. But people, like one guy wrote in, he said, my sex life is even better. Yeah, that's great. Good to know. Good to know. I think that's going to be the thing as well for you guys, is that because of Shane's profile, people are going to want to tell you about how it's impacted them. So, that is really cool, because I think even on the document you shared with me, there was a lot of comments in there about feedback. Oh yeah, people, testimonials. Yeah, the people that said- Countless now. Yeah. So, I'll tell you what happened. The day we launched to the paper with no plan, sorry, two plans, plan A and plan B, we said, if we get to go to Boxing Day Test, we could change one life. Well, that morning, a guy called Brendan Lynch said he woke up, he didn't feel very well, was thinking, do I go to work or don't I? Just didn't feel great, felt nauseous and a couple of things. Anyway, he said he went into the kitchen to make a coffee and opened his iPad and saw us on the front page of the paper. And so, he thought, maybe it's something more. So, he called his GP, went to the GP, GP sent him straight to hospital. At 11.15am, he had a heart attack in emergency. They called a code blue on him. He woke up from heart surgery in bed number 23. So, we had changed a life by lunchtime that day. And then it's just been- It's just that awareness factor. Awareness is a lot, yeah. I mean, that's what we bring to the table. Obviously, Sisu Health have the tools and Diabetes and La Trobe have the funding and the care. They genuinely care. They want to make a difference. They're not even so much about using Shane's name. They do like it, but it's not about that. No, of course not. They love, obviously, the awareness factor of it, but their main goal is to make a difference. And we are. And I sort of think the price line is a very underrated retailer. They just have so many people through there, don't they? Yeah. I don't know if this is right, but I'm imagining the guy, we've all done it, hung out the front of the shop. I don't really want to come into that shop with you. Oh, yeah. So, I'm imagining, while I'm standing here, I may as well go and jump on the testing station. It's literally four or five minutes and you can just sit there while your wife shops. Although, saying that, more women die of heart attack than breast cancer. Yeah, it's a surprising thing, isn't it? Yeah. So, it's just as much for women. Heart disease is the second biggest killer. I don't like saying that, but in women, dementia is number one and heart disease is a close second. But women have different symptoms. Yeah, right. What do they? Is that of interest? Always. I'll tell you. Hang on. You're going to have to cut this bit. Oh, I forget. Hang on. They're similar, but they're very different. Hang on. Stop. Okay. Can you ask again? So, the symptoms for women. So, in both men and women, they have the chest pain, pressure, squeezing, pain spreading to the arm, shoulder or neck, and often jaw or back, shortness of breath, cold sweats, nausea or lightheadedness. Men's symptoms. So, the classic presentation is crushing chest pain, like you feel like there's an elephant on your chest, or often radiating pain down the left arm or your jaw, and sweating, and shortness of breath. But women's symptoms are more atypical and subtle, like they can get chest pain, but mild or absent. You don't have to have the chest pain. It's pain in the neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back, or upper stomach, shortness of breath. That's interesting. Yep. But without the discomfort of the chest pain. Yeah. Nausea, vomiting, indigestion, and unusual fatigue. So, sometimes for days or weeks before an event, they can feel really, really tired. So, you've got to really listen to your body. Yeah. Lightheadedness or dizziness. So, yeah. Men are more the classic chest crushing pain, and women is more subtle, and you could put it down to something else too. So... You could just say, I'm just tired, because... I guess the message out of that is, we have actually mentioned as a joke that guys don't go to the doctor as much, but don't think that you shouldn't stand or go in and get tested if you're a woman. Well, there's another story about this. A guy took his mum in to get a health check, and he was 86, young, and he wanted his mum to... Anyway, she did her health check, and she was amazing. Everything was in the green, like me. No, she was really good. Anyway, she said to him, you do it. So, he did it, and they called him an ambulance. Wow. And he went straight to hospital, and had a triple bypass, or had something. He had heart surgery. And, obviously, not presenting symptoms at all. Yeah. I don't know if he had symptoms or not, but yeah, he only went to take his mum in there. So, it's worth both of you doing it, but yeah. I mean, this is for a local podcast, right? So, we've got one in Southland, not the pipeline downstairs near Kmart, the one upstairs near Key West. Oh, yeah. But just jump on the Shanborne website. Yeah. I think that's the key, because we've got listeners all around. So, what's your next plan? Obviously, you've got Boxing Day coming up in 2025. Look, we've got... Gather round again next year. Possibly. So, he'll be with the Premier next week, when he comes down for the grand final? The Brightline, no doubt, is probably on board. That's probably, I would imagine, getting more people through those stations than anywhere, given they're 365 days a year. Yeah. So, they can get in. The mega events that we do, like, yeah. So, we've got Boxing Day. That's obviously our main event, for obvious reasons. Yes. And, you know, the NCG was Shane's office, basically. Yeah. He's the same guy in the office today. So, we've got that. And gather round. Yeah. Like, it's great. It's not locked in yet for 2026, but hopefully we can do that again. You know, we always have to find the funding. We've got a lot of people wanting to connect with us and partner with us for a whole range of different things, but we want to walk before we run. Like, as I said, we launched November 2023. We're not two yet. Yeah. So, we just want to make sure we do things properly and we don't overextend ourselves. Yeah. We're a big team. We've got Shane's wonderful family as our ambassadors, and they're brilliant. Like, his kids and brother and his dad, they can speak so well. Yeah. Like, all of them. And they speak from the heart, because they love him. Yeah. And they, you know, the kids are young. I mean, they're not kids anymore, but they're still very young, losing their dad. They, you know, really also want to make a difference. So, they got that from him. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that they, I'd imagine, they all know that he would have wanted to do this as well and been right behind it. So, in some ways, they're honouring that for him, aren't they? Yeah. Absolutely. After he passed away, all of us said, what would Shane want? And that's how we drive ourselves. Motivation. Yeah. Our values, the legacy when we started it. We are all Shane's values. Yeah. So, we've got, have a crack, because he just wanted to have a crack at everything. Yeah. Like, he's just like, just try it. Have a crack. Find a way, which was something that annoyed me while he was around. But he was a perfectionist, so he wouldn't take no for an answer. You could never say no. He'd just say, there's got to be a way. Find a way. Like, if we want to do it, we can do it. And so, that's another one of our values. Yeah. And another one is lift, but we've made it lift others. But he would often say to anyone who wasn't trying hard, lift. Yeah. So, that's one of our values. Yeah. We are guided by them, and we literally all just say to each other, would Shane want this? What would Shane want? And we are guided by that. And that's why we work the way we work. We're unique. We don't follow what other people do. We also don't raise money. We don't ask for money from the public, because we want to just give back. Yeah. Plus, we are the week before the Pinterest. So, Glenn McGrath and Shane were bowling partners. And so, we made the decision that we weren't going to fundraise at the Boxing Day Test, because we don't want to take away from what the McGrath Foundation do, and people get charity fatigue. So, taking at Boxing Day, when the McGrath Foundation's been going for 20 years, is just crazy to us. Like, we want to make a difference, and we want them to continue making a difference, and we just do it a different way. Awesome. That's fantastic. Anything else you'd like to mention, Helen? Thank you for letting me bring Indy in. No. Well, it is funny, because Indy did, in our space here, we've got a lot of fake green plants and that sort of thing. Indy decided to relieve herself on one of those. I should have been embarrassed. She's a beautiful girl. Yeah. She's 12, and yeah, she just thought it was, there's a lot of fake trees. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you for having me. It's been a great chat. I love hearing about it, because I know, even in the street, we've had the odd chat about it, and even going through this process, I've learned a heap more about it. Have you? What have you learned? Oh, I just think- There's so much to talk about. To be honest, I didn't really realise that it had been rolled out to Priceline and that sort of thing. I knew that there was things happening around the events, so it isn't just that. I think that's what gave me the idea to have it on the podcast, because sometimes it just takes that repetition for people to hear things many, many times before they realise I could go and do this and be part of it. I would love for all your listeners to jump on now to shamewornlegacy.com, put in your postcode, and I would love to hear from you, whether you're all green, red, orange, whatever it is. Yeah, let's do it. I'd love to hear any stories. You can just contact us through the website. We read everything, and you can just tell us about your experience. Even if it's in six months' time when you've lost 50 kilos, because this has motivated you to do so. Make a change. I mean, the thing is, just one more thing to think about, is Shane would never have left his kids, and if this was around when he was around, it would have probably been something he would have done, because there was no bookings. Not that he cared about the cost, but do you know what I mean? You don't have to book in. You can just walk into Priceline. If the machine's free, sit down. You've got four minutes of your life. It could be the most important four minutes of your life. As evidenced by some of the stories. Awesome. So many stories. Thanks, Ellen. Two of stories. Thank you. Ciao.