About Me
I gravitated towards a career in fashion and retail whilst at school, after being successful in applying for a part time sales position at Laura Ashley. There I stayed, for most of my teenage years, graduating eventually to measuring curtains and personal styling cementing a love for everything fashion, interiors and beauty was born.
In my early 20s after university, I made the pilgrimage to London and worked in the very first (yes that is how old I am) Karen Millen store in Covent Garden’s Seven Dials. From there, the fashion industry beckoned and I moved from various retailers positions until I got a break in the world that is Fashion PR.
Fast forward 10 years to being a co-founder of Coco Ribbon, an award winning luxury lifestyle store based in Notting Hill, Kensington, with focus on building the brand over a number of years, setting up a new store in Chelsea and a fashion label sold both Nationally and Internationally. The company enjoyed great success over a ten year time-span, only to succumb to closure during the international financial crash of 2009.
Our family moved to the Essex countryside in 2013 and as well as a mum to two young boys, I dipped my toes into different creative ponds, such as interior design (still a love of mine) and finally… yoga.
And that’s where you find me today. I still teach yoga and I love it. It fills me full of joy.
In 2021 I had treatment for lobular breast cancer. It’s not something I particularly want to define me, but suffice to say that it was the inspiration behind this directory and I am grateful that it allowed me to reconnect with my love for fashion and beauty.
In my experience, as a 49 year old woman with breast cancer, it was desperately hard to identify with anyone or anything. I had lost my sense of being and my sense of self. I felt like I was living in a parallel universe. It was me, but a different me, doing all the things I had done before, but I felt different. An older model of me, a little more damaged, with a constant threat of feeling left behind on the shelf. Cancer made me feel like I was invisible. Who on earth was I? I felt like a shapeless dress. Because, who cares, right? You’re nearly 50 and you’re broken…
Well that wasn’t happening! I gave myself a talking to and became determined to look and feel better, on a mission to find an inclusive approach to cancer health, beauty and lifestyle, an approach that helped people like me feel good about themselves and feel less excluded from life as we know it.
The Little Breast Directory is me sharing my knowledge of products, lotions and potions and treatments that I found beneficial during treatment. All the things you find on here I still use today.
I hope that it too, brings you some clarity and sense of joy on your journey. Go well and remember that, this time, it IS all about you…