Meet Barbara, Founder of Working with Cancer
Barbara is currently on Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs Programme
For almost 40 years I was convinced I didn’t want to be an entrepreneur. Other people did that and most of them seemed to be a bit mad! My dad had been one of sorts and look where it had got him! He ran a small leather goods business for many years and was constantly worrying about not earning enough money to support us. He had a nervous breakdown when I was a few months old and never really recovered.
So, after university, I pursued a pretty successful career in large or medium sized companies as a loyal employee, specialising in HR, which I enjoyed but wasn’t terribly fulfilling. Why did I change my mind and set up my own business? Well, I got cancer – in that sense, heaven help me, I did follow the family’s lead; my dad died of pancreatic cancer when I was 15 and my mum died of bowel cancer in 1993. My aunt Barbara (who I’d been named after) had died of Hodgkins’ Lymphoma at the age of 36. Getting cancer didn’t surprise me – in a way I was expecting it – but for me it hasn’t been about endings; it has been about new beginnings…
