We always keep our ears to the ground when it comes to outstanding community members, and we want to give a shout-out to one such member, Kate-Marie Butlin, a woman, mother, an avid trail runner, and business owner, who is proud to be building a successful life here in our neck of the woods.
Meet Midlands-born mom and businesswoman, Kate-Marie Butlin. She has been shaped by small-town life in the best of ways and is a strong pillar within the countryside community. Her compassionate personality is the driving force at the core of the work she does and how she leads her life. Let’s learn more about how she started her journey and how she continues to envision and embody a life well-lived.
After Kate-Marie matriculated in 1999, she studied Psychology at Rhodes University and completed a PGCE at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She then spent two years running her own swimming school in Dubai. When she returned to South Africa, she furthered her studies at the University of Pretoria, qualifying as a Hearing Aid Acoustician. Her career in Hearing Healthcare started in 2010, with a business partnership, but she decided to take the reins and open her own private practice in 2018, with consulting rooms at Lenmed Howick Hospital and Hilton Life Hospital. She is passionate about supporting others in their hearing healthcare journey and hosts regular hearing clinics at the Ambers in Howick. “I’m a deeply compassionate person, and my love for helping others is at the heart of everything I do. Over the past 15 years in Howick, I’ve been privileged to build not just a thriving practice, but a truly special community of clients.
I feel genuinely blessed to feel excited about going to work, knowing I’ll be helping someone rediscover the sounds that make life beautiful. Watching a patient’s face light up when they hear birdsong, music, or the laughter of their grandchildren again is incredibly rewarding. My work is deeply personal, and every day brings a new story, a new smile, and the privilege of making a difference,” she shared.
Apart from running a successful private practice, Kate-Marie is also an avid trail runner, a passion that has hit its stride since 2020. She shared, “I wasn’t always a runner, unlike my dad, who has 13 Comrades Marathons under his belt! I started at 39, after the birth of my third child, during the 2020 lockdown.” It started as small walks around the block and quickly turned into jogs in the Karkloof forest trails. Kate-Marie soon found herself running the Mont Aux Sources Mountain, Sani Pass trails, and through Big Five game reserves like Nambiti and Imfolozi. She was honoured as the Female Runner of the Year in 2021 and received the award for Female Trail Runner of the Year in 2024 by the Howick Athletic Club, which she joined in 2020. It’s a testament that it’s never too late to start something new.
While Kate-Marie keeps on running, whether it’s on the trails, serving others on their hearing health journey, or raising three children, she has learned a lot of lessons along the way and continues to find inspiration in what she does every day. “One of the greatest gifts of my profession is working with the elderly on a daily basis. Their wisdom, shaped by years of love, loss, laughter, and resilience, has taught me how to appreciate the true joys in life by slowing down and living in the moment. These lessons inspire how I approach both my work and my family life, with gratitude, presence, and purpose,” she shared.
While challenges will always be there, Kate-Marie has learned to deal with them with a sound perspective. Accepting the fact that she doesn’t have everything figured out (who does anyway?) and making time for self-care has become a cornerstone in maintaining a level of balance. “My running bag is always packed in my car, and I’ve been known to sneak in a quick run while waiting for my kids to finish sports practise. A few peaceful kilometres to keep me grounded, balanced, and ready to tackle life’s chaos,” said Kate-Marie. Her vision for the future is very much rooted in the present, where she feels blessed to be exactly where she wants and needs to be at this stage in her life. Building a life and home for herself and her family filled with love and adventure. “Looking ahead, I’ll know I’ve succeeded when my grown children still love coming home, to a place with happy memories, where they feel safe, and know that, even if we didn’t always have it all together, they were always loved, accepted, and cherished. That vision shapes how I live today, because the future I dream of is being built now, in the small everyday moments,” she shared.
We are proud to have Kate-Marie as one of our community members who is forward-focused while keeping her feet firmly on the ground (or trails!) and her heart centred on keeping compassion alive in the countryside.
Words: Alicia Du Plessis