DIFFICULT ROAD TO RECOVER

Starting a business after having her first child was tough enough – then she was diagnosed with cancer.

Three months after Erika Nilsson-Humphrey launched her business, her life became chaos by cancer. She describes her difficult road to recovery.

A. Luckily, it was at its early stage, but it was the most aggressive type and had to be treated well. She was 36 years old with a nine-month-old daughter. The next day after dropping off her daughter at nursery, her husband went to work and she continued working. She took comfort in it because it helped her have a sense of normality and allowed her to focus on other things.

B. In 2013, while Erica was a banker working in the City, she noticed that the men around wanted to look good. Then she decided to create Dappad, which is an online personal shopping service that enables men to outsource their clothes shopping to a personal stylist. They only pay for the clothes, which are priced the same as in the stores, and shipping is free. Dappad launched in February 2015, and only a few months later, just as she was about to start an external financing round to expand her marketing efforts, her world was turned upside down. On a bland Tuesday, at what she thought was a routine check-up, she was told she had breast cancer.

C. She has now completed six months of chemotherapy, has had surgery and completed one month of radiotherapy. She is cancer-free and hopes to stay that way with medication and a healthy and balanced lifestyle. She still wants to achieve the things she wanted to achieve before she was diagnosed, but she goes about achieving these in a different way. Previously, she would always put herself last when it came to life and work, but she now tries to put herself, her health and her family first, before anything else gets tended too. If they are in good health and feel well, this can only have positive effects on work and business.

D. She is a strong believer in the glass-half-full theory. She believes that the only thing that we can control in life is how we react to events around us – everything else is out of our control. She got breast cancer at the midst of starting a business, but she is lucky enough to have a strong and supportive husband, great friends, a roof over her head and some of the best treatments available to her. If she can do it, she believes, anybody can.

E. It was incredibly hard to juggle starting a business, being a new mother and dealing with cancer at the same time. In addition to her old boss, her saviour, during the 6-month-treatment, was her cousin who came to live with them as a kind of live in au-pair and nanny for five months. Without her, it wouldn’t have worked. She was a saviour taking care of her daughter and making sure the household stayed stable.

F. The next six months of chemotherapy treatments were a roller coaster. Her intention was always to keep the business going. She was very lucky to still have people believe in her, and one of her old bosses from her banking days decided to make a substantial investment despite her diagnosis. She is really grateful to him. She didn’t handle chemotherapy that well, as she got sick and worn down very quickly; some days she could only spend in bed, and after working for a few hours she was exhausted. It also affected her mentally. Eventually she lost all her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes and this made her want to hide away.

Adapted from The Guardian website