Kintsugi Heroes
Tessa’s Path from Grief to Strength and Purpose
Tessa Colliver
Tessa survived her brother's sudden death, MS at 16, and her father's suicide. Thirty years later, she walks daily and works.
Kintsugi Studio
Kintsugi Heroes
Tessa Colliver
Tessa survived her brother's sudden death, MS at 16, and her father's suicide. Thirty years later, she walks daily and works.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Tessa grew up on a farm in rural South Australia, riding bikes and motorbikes, spending summers at the beach with family. When she was ten, her brother Nathan died suddenly from a congenital heart condition. A year later, at sixteen, her fingers stopped working. She couldn't hold a pen during a history project in the cemetery. Weeks or months passed before she saw a neurologist and got her MS diagnosis. While waiting, she spent school days isolated in the typing room. IV steroids helped her hands recover during a family holiday to the Northern Territory, and she watched her handwriting improve day by day in her diary.
In her twenties, living in Melbourne, Tessa started injectable disease-modifying treatment three times a week. She moved back to Adelaide in 2006 to be closer to family, but arrived just in time to watch her father's health unravel. He had Graves disease, which brought depression and anxiety. On 10 July 2006, he took his own life. Tessa was 28. Months later, in early 2007, she had a severe MS relapse that left her barely able to walk or drive. For the first time, she was genuinely frightened about her future.
Tessa got involved with peer support groups for suicide loss, which helped her heal. Nearly ten years ago, she got Boss, a Jack Russell cross. Walking him every day gradually rebuilt her fitness and stamina. Now, thirty years into living with MS, Tessa works as a consultant from home, lives independently, drives, and walks her dog daily. She has found meditation lifechanging, especially the Calm app for slowing her breathing when stress builds. She watches her brother's children grow up and focuses on what she can do rather than what she cannot.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide & self-harm prevention, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au
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