Sometimes our lives deviate from what we expected in ways we could never have imagined.

For Cairns based journalist, media trainer and author Kirsty Nancarrow, her bestselling and now award winning book Himalayan Dreams is proof that you never know what could be around the corner.

As a journalist for 15 years with ABC Radio in Queensland’s far north, Kirsty had covered literally thousands of stories for broadcast. However one of them stuck with her more than any other.

She met Som Tamang after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. Som was living in Cairns but still had strong links to his homeland of Nepal through his ongoing work with the organisation he founded - Friends of Himalayan Children. He went straight back to Nepal with volunteers from Cairns to help in the aftermath of of the earthquake where thousands of people lost their lives.

Kirsty soon discovered the backstory - that Som had made it his mission since escaping child slavery himself, to give all Nepalese children access to education and a better life.

She would eventually go to Batase Village as a volunteer teacher 18 months later, and decided then to write the story of this remarkable man in her first book.

As Kirsty tells us on Streets of Your Town, she is constantly inspired by Som’s story and how much of a difference he has made particularly for girls, saving many from a life of early marriage and back breaking labour. She says he shows the difference that anyone can make when they don’t allow the obstacles in their life to overcome them.

For more shownotes and links - please go to my Streets of Your Town magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

You can find more information on Kirsty at https://www.kirstynancarrow.com/