50th birthday offering to transform my mother’s care journey into a platform for community healing, preventative wisdom, and compassionate connection.

Hi, I’m Svetlana Transka-Lea — a Bulgarian living in Australia, a carer, holistic health professional, advocate, and daughter racing for a cause.

On May 31st, I ran the Australian Spartan Race in Queensland and won silver in my age group — a moment that opened an unexpected door: to represent Bulgaria at the World Obstacle Course Racing Championships in Sweden, on the very week I turn 50.

But this isn’t just about racing. It’s about transforming my mum’s care journey into a living legacy — and building a platform for healing, education, and prevention that can serve many.

I’ve been walking beside her through advanced cognitive decline, and alongside others facing complex chronic conditions. Over and over, I’ve witnessed how our medical, mental health, and metabolic systems too often treat symptoms in isolation — and fail to teach how to prevent suffering before it begins.

While caring for Mum, I’ve also taken full responsibility for her ongoing treatments and support—financially, emotionally, logistically. It’s shaped every part of my life, including the ability to work in conventional ways. But it’s also deepened the mission—reminding me that real care asks everything of us, and still offers something greater in return.

Your support is not to pay for my trip but to launch something new:

A platform (part digital, part in-person) dedicated for real connection, authentic sharing and deep support, that:

This platform is a gift forward: born of personal devotion, but meant for collective good.

Ways to support:

So many of us are carrying silent burdens. This is a place to lay some of them down — together.

Deepest gratitude to my beloved husband, Anthony, to our sons, Noah and Joshua and amazing mum and dad in-law - Barbara’s and Raymond — whose love, support, and care for Mum and me have made not only this race possible, but the daily acts of tending, training, and self-care that sustain it. You hold this mission with me! I honour you!! 

As this mission takes root, I’ll be sharing small gifts along the way—reflections from the journey, practices that support resilience, tools that have helped me care, cope, and stay strong. It’s not a transaction. It’s a thank you. A way to keep the circle whole. Because giving is reciprocal, and healing is something we build—together.