Back in 2017, I weighed 15 stone. After having my two children in 2014 and 2016, I began experiencing a range of health problems, including frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs) and recurring thrush. I spent the next three years searching for answers through the NHS, but despite numerous appointments, I never felt I got to the root cause of my symptoms. Most of the time, I was simply offered medication.

Eventually, I decided to take responsibility for finding my own answers. I immersed myself in learning about gut health and came across information about Candida overgrowth, which some believe can be linked to repeated antibiotic use, pregnancy and a diet high in sugar. I also discovered traditional foods such as bone broth and fermented drinks, which are often used to support digestive health.

Using everything I had learned, I created my own dietary approach called Be Candida Free and introduced bone broth and water kefir into my daily routine. Within 12 weeks, my symptoms had completely gone, and I had lost two and a half stone. Over the following two years, I went on to lose a total of six stone and experienced a complete transformation in my health.

That journey changed my life. After seeing how difficult it was to find practical support and real food-based options, I decided to start making bone broth myself. In 2018, I founded British Broth Company with a simple mission: to make traditional bone broth accessible to others and to share my story in the hope that it might inspire someone else to take control of their own health journey.

From my small kitchen at home, I began making bone broth for myself, but it wasn't long before I started making a little extra for others too. I had no money to invest in starting a business, but I was fortunate to be given some food containers, which I filled with homemade bone broth soup and sold to local customers.

I built a simple website, launched an Instagram page, and before long, orders were arriving from all over the UK. I continued sharing my journey, speaking about the benefits of bone broth and giving local presentations where I told my health story and introduced people to my products.

What began as a few pots of broth bubbling away in my kitchen soon grew into something much bigger. By the end of 2018, I had obtained a food business licence and was sending bone broth to customers across the country. The business was originally launched under the name Boil & Broth, marking the beginning of a journey that would eventually grow into what is now the British Broth Company.

By 2019, the business had grown rapidly, and I was doing everything myself. I was making the broth, packaging every order, managing the website, processing customer orders, shipping parcels, marketing the business, handling the finances, and answering customer enquiries—all while caring for my two young children at home.

Before long, I had completely outgrown our rented home. We moved to a larger house so I could create more space for production, with multiple slow cookers running throughout the day. As demand continued to increase, I switched to pressure cooking, allowing me to produce more broth in less time while maintaining the same traditional cooking process.

It was also during 2019 that I realised there was growing demand for bone broth for pets. At the time, there were no dedicated bone broth companies producing for pets in the UK, so I applied for a pet food licence. We became the first company in the UK to hold licences to manufacture bone broth for both human and pet consumption, a distinction that, to the best of my knowledge, we still hold today.

As word spread, the business continued to grow. Customers returned time and time again, recommending our products to family and friends, and what had started as a personal health journey was steadily becoming a thriving family business.

By February 2020, I was still running the business entirely on my own. Then COVID arrived, and almost overnight everything changed. Demand for bone broth exploded, and we experienced a 3,000% increase in sales.

What had already been a busy business suddenly became overwhelming. For the next 10 weeks, I worked around 15 hours a day, cooking broth and packing orders to keep up with demand. Despite the unprecedented workload, every customer order was fulfilled. At the same time, my two children were at home being homeschooled, making it one of the busiest and most challenging periods of my life.

As orders continued to pour in, I had to invest in more equipment. I bought my first commercial freezer, then another, and another. Before long, I had three 24-litre pressure cookers and a total of eleven fridges and freezers running to keep up with production.

By the end of 2020, we had once again outgrown our home. We moved to a farm cottage with an outbuilding, which I converted into a dedicated production kitchen. It was another big step forward, allowing me to install more ovens, more pressure cookers and even more freezer space as the business continued to expand.

By 2022, we had once again outgrown our premises. This time, however, I didn't want to uproot my family again. Instead, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life: signing the lease on our first commercial premises and bringing my husband, Simon, into the business full time.

It was a huge leap of faith. We had no investors, no financial backing and no guarantees,just a belief in what we were building and a passion for helping people take a more active role in their health through real, nourishing food.

We signed the lease, moved into a much larger production facility, and finally had a place that felt like a long-term home for the business.

In 2023, I made another important decision. I split Boil & Broth into two separate brands, creating the British Broth Company for our human products, while Boil & Broth became dedicated exclusively to pets. Although the products are made using the same traditional process, human and pet foods are regulated separately, so maintaining two brands allows us to operate under the appropriate licences for each industry.