I'd been dealing with it for years, and by 2016 I'd had enough. My immune system was failing me. Angular cheilitis every winter, extreme bloating almost as soon as I'd eaten, catching every cold going. My diet growing up had been terrible. I was vegetarian, but not the healthy kind and my periods were awful, PMS, pain, operations, at its worst - it's 'just normal for some women' I was told. One doctor recommended I have some kids to resolve the issues, no pressure then.

Not one doctor ever asked me about my diet.

Then came an unrelated diagnosis of glandular fever, and I was told I'd feel like that for six months. That was my lightbulb moment, my Ikigai was born. I couldn't just wait it out. I had to do something myself.

At the time I was twenty years into a career in media, from radio to employer branding. I trained for five years to become a Registered Nutritional Therapist, then moved into corporate wellbeing in London, where I looked after the wellbeing of a global team for six years. Today I bring both together: the science of nutrition, and a very real understanding of busy, high-pressure lives. It's why my workplace wellbeing talks are built for real working days, not perfect ones.

Today? My digestion has been settled for years now, the angular cheilitis is a distant memory, and my periods are relatively symptom free. But I'd be lying if I said I'd fixed it and walked away. The work continues, because wellbeing isn't something you finish, it's something you keep doing, season after season. Cyclical, like everything else worth looking after.