Ablepreneur Stories 

My health started to deteriorate around 2016. For years I put the aches, pains and various other things down to perimenopause, possible arthritis, getting older, being tired, being busy... you get the picture. After lots of appointments and examinations, but not really finding anything, I was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2022.

It's a weird diagnosis. There's no big obvious sign saying "THIS PERSON IS ILL" and, even when you're in pain, there's a part of you that wonders if you're making a fuss. I'm not. As I write this I'm in a pretty awful flare and in constant pain across most of my body. It's not much fun.

As my health changed, I found it increasingly difficult to fit myself around a conventional working life. So I started creating a working life that could fit around me instead.

I became an independent digital and e-commerce consultant, which I still do a little of, and then went on to build Ethel & Em, our yarn and stationery business in Lancaster. I have a brilliant team around me who keep things moving when physically I can't be there, and I've had to learn that running a business doesn't mean doing every single thing yourself. Still very much a work in progress on that one.

I'm incredibly proud of what we've built. We've won Independent Retailer of the Year locally and have been recognised twice by Small Business Britain this year. I sit on Lancaster BID's Independent Business Committee, I'm an Entrepreneur in Residence at Lancaster University, I've been a charity trustee and I'm about to head back to Lancaster University to do an MBA. Apparently I like to keep busy.

I also strongly suspect there's some undiagnosed neurodivergence rattling around in there somewhere. Maybe all of this has helped shape Ethel & Em too. I needed to create a working environment where I could be myself and work a little differently, and somewhere along the way we created a space where other people can do the same.

That's really important to me. I want Ethel & Em to be somewhere you can turn up as you are. You don't have to know what you're doing, you don't have to look or behave a certain way and you don't have to pretend you're having a good day when you're not. You can come in, have a chat, squish some yarn, look at lovely stationery and hopefully feel at home.

Fibromyalgia has changed what I'm physically able to do. Some days are good, some are rubbish and sometimes it's incredibly frustrating. I've had to learn to work differently, accept help and recognise that not being able to do everything doesn't mean I'm not capable of doing something.

So yes, I wake up, I show up when I can, I have a fantastic team around me and I've built a business that works with the life and body I actually have, rather than the one I think I ought to have.

And I am ridiculously proud of that.