Today I’m chatting with Bek Stone—a mother of two, physio, and BRCA2 Breast Cancer survivor from Albany, who runs the popular Instagram account @mastectomytomarathon. Bek was diagnosed with breast cancer at 32 years old when her youngest daughter was 19 months old. She initially thought she had mastitis but ended up with a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction in 2025.

A typical physio, who adores running, Bek looked around for a creative outlet to encourage others while she recovered from her surgeries and landed on documenting her recovery (and nipple choices!) on Instagram. This chat was so honest, encouraging, and made me cackle on multiple occasions—I hope you’ll listen in, even if you are not facing a breast reconstruction.

This is a different type of episode for us—it’s our first Ask Me Anything episode. Bec enjoyed her chat with Josie so much that she found a way to bring her back! Maddy and Bec pepper Josie with questions from women who volunteer and work in kids ministry across WA. We run the gamut of topics from rural churches to doubts about enduring in teaching kids after leadership failures. This is a delightfully encouraging episode if you have kids in your life, even if you are not gifted in singing or children’s craft or possess the teacher voice. Josie reminds us that sharing our faith with children is a whole church task, because we are a family.

This episode was borne out of Maddy’s experience working on staff at a church and the sheer amount of people who confessed feeling disconnected and lonely in the post-service crowd. These people knew people at church, but described feeling awkward and uncomfortable, like they were not sure if they belonged or fit in with the crowd. So today, Maddy, Rach, Britt and Bec dig into our own experiences of loneliness, specifically at church, and what helped shift us out of these seasons.

We are interviewing all of our regular contributors in Season 1 for you to get to know them better. Today’s guest is Rhianon Rae, who shares beautifully about her difficulty with vulnerability throughout her life and what God has taught her about his faithfulness and peace through seasons of doubt and church conflict as a pastors wife.

Loving On Your Brothers and Sisters was born from Britt texting this essay to our group chat and us collectively weeping at how beautiful and honest and encouraging it was. Join Maddy, Rach, Britt and Bec as we debrief and process the practicalities of loving our as brothers and sisters in the church.

Madeleine Richards is a singer-songwriter and a regular contributor to Stories I’d Tell You at Dinner. We explore how she started writing and producing songs, coming to faith in Christ in her twenties, and the balm of community and bringing her mess to the Lord after a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.