Breathworks bursary programme was established through the generous legacy of Aryamati Olga Kenyon—a Cambridge graduate, acclaimed author, and passionate activist who found relief from her own chronic pain through Breathworks' mindfulness approach.

Her gift ensures that financial circumstances never prevent anyone from accessing the life-changing benefits of mindfulness. You can read about some of the bursary recipients for courses here and teacher training recipients here.

Memories of Aryamati

Aryamati was a remarkable woman. A mother-of-three and grandmother-of-seven, she was a life-long passionate campaigner and generous donor to a number of causes. She focused on women’s rights as well as any kind of injustice. She was an active member of Manchester’s Amnesty International, tirelessly campaigning for freedom.

As a Cambridge graduate, Aryamati had a rich career involving teaching, lecturing and writing until her retirement in the early 90's due to ill-health. She was fluent in five languages as well as being a well-respected author of women’s writing with eight books published. Author PD James wrote the foreword to her most acclaimed book ‘800 Years of Women’s Letters’.

It read: "Olga Kenyon has performed a service to all who are interested not only in the written word, but in the changing lives of women".

Aryamati was also an accomplished poet and in 2013 she won the North West Libraries poetry award with her poem To the Edge, about Alderley Edge, being displayed on trams in Manchester. A poetry prize has been established in her name. 

She was ordained as a Buddhist in 2005, fulfilling her aspiration to make the world a better place based on the non-violent principles at the heart of Buddhism. This is when she was given the name Aryamati which means 'she whose mind is noble'. Surely a fitting tribute to such a noble and ethically dignified woman. She was very involved in Buddhism until the time of her death in 2014 and ran meditation and poetry groups at the Manchester Buddhist Centre in the Northern Quarter of her beloved city.

Towards the end of her life she suffered from osteoporosis which caused crippling back pain and led to multiple surgeries. But this didn’t dim her commitment to campaigning for a better world.

In an article in the Manchester Evening News after her death her family said: "Rather than enjoying a quiet retirement as a lover of life Olga threw herself into everything the city has to offer."