Phone Us
Reception Line
0844 3579361
(Lo Call Number)
Business heroes earn recognition.
ENTREPRENEURS who have triumphed over adversity were recognised at the Barclays Trading Places Awards.
Maurice Humphrys, from Hildersham, was one of the top 10 "business heroes" in the East of England and picked up his award at a gala lunch at the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Cambridge.
Just 21 months ago he was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome but in January he set up Swish Breeze, a company that offers a personal coaching service so people can lead full lives.
Busy single mother Julie Woods, from Huntingdon, was diagnosed with a rare brain condition in 2001 which left her fighting for her life.
But the internet provided the perfect platform for her new business Mystic Charms™, an online new age specialist.
Cambridge woman Olive Hamblin has overcome MS and sight impairment to start Avalon Retail.
The inspiration came when she bought a magnetic clasp from America to help fasten her necklace more easily as she suffers with arthritis. She began to import and resell the clasps.
And her business is one of two selected from the region to go forward for the national awards.
John Davis, Barclays marketing director for local business, a judge on the panel, said: "The Trading Places Awards honour unsung heroes who, in spite of disadvantages or personal challenges, have taken steps to grow their own sustainable business and in doing so have transformed their prospects for the better.
"The calibre of this year's entries is really outstanding. We hope they will inspire other budding entrepreneurs in the East of England, who face similar difficulties in there private lives, to come forward and turn their own business dreams into reality."
Mystic Charms™ Local Press Coverage 2008
Driven by disability
Battling Chronic Illness - How Desire And Motivation Lead From Benefits To The Boardroom.
Forced to abandon her full time job as a PA, after being diagnosed with a rare and debilitating illness, Julie Woods became dependant on the state. With limited income, unable to work and battling depression brought on by her disability she faced crisis point.
Highly motivated to regain financial independence and a sense of self worth, she took a step into the unknown by launching a business online. With limited funding, very little knowledge of web design but with a huge desire to succeed, a business was born.
Today that business has won awards celebrating its growth and its commitment to enabling others in her position to work for themselves.
Diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformation (ACM), a condition involving malformations of the brainstem, cerebellum and upper spinal chord, where the flow of crucial fluids into the brain is blocked.
Julie faced complex brain surgery, leaving her in the position of having to relearn all of her basic motor functions in order to live a 'normal' life. Unable to return to the workplace due to the effects of the illness, yet desperate to regain financial independence she turned to the World Wide Web.
Working from home, dictating her own hours and working around her disability, Julie designed her website, liaised with suppliers and built what today is one of the fastest growing dropshipping businesses in the country. Still highly enthusiastic and motivated, Julie is in a position to encourage others whose health or disability limits their employment options.
She says "Disability should be no barrier to those wanting to succeed. Working from home is an increasingly viable option for those with access to the internet. The opportunity I can offer through Mystic Charms™ means that everybody can be their own boss and work towards achieving their dreams."
Julie is eager to help people on disability or sickness benefit return to work, and seeks to work with the Governments 'Pathways to Work' scheme, which offers support to those with health conditions or disability return to employment. Mystic Charms™ has recently been presented with a prestigious award from Barclays Bank, celebrating its growing success.
The business offers people the opportunity to purchase an affiliate/franchise website, fully stocked with products ready for an ever growing niche market. Support is offered via a technical help desk, as well as via the Mystic Charms™ Community Forum.
I was crippled by illness - now I'm a self-made success'
alice.ryan@cambridge-news.co.uk
Features - Julie Woods
Crawling out of bed, Julie Woods struggled to her feet. Her head swimming, she could barely see straight.
In her early 40s, the single mum had been struck down by a rare brain disease. And it was making her life a complete misery.
"I can remember crawling out of bed to let the doctor in," says Julie. "I crept along the hallway, leaning against the wall all the way. It was awful. I could hardly stand up, let alone walk."
Seven years on and those dark times are a distant memory. In fact, Julie couldn't be happier.
Yes, she still has bad days. But - thanks to a combination of death-defying brain surgery and her own tenacious will - Julie is healthier than she has been for a decade.
And, just last year, the 49-year-old started her own company: called Mystic Charms™, it's a new age web business selling everything from Dragon's Blood to crystal balls.
It's proved a life-changing enterprise: after 10 years on disability benefits, Julie started with nothing; turning over almost £40,000 in her first 12 months of trading, she's just won a coveted business hero award.
"I'd spent 10 years living on disability benefits," explains Julie, who lives in Wyton. "It wasn't a case of 'Can I shop at Next or New Look?', it was a case of 'Can I buy milk or bread?' Money was that tight: you don't live on that budget, you survive.
"I was in my 40s. I wanted to get off disability benefits. And I couldn't go back to work because I didn't know, from one day to the next, how I was going to feel.
"So I decided to make a job for myself. I've still got a lot of life left to live and I don't want to struggle. Actually, I'd like to be rich . . ."
Julie's marriage split up when her youngest son, Steven, was just five-years-old. Left a single mum-of-three, she admits life wasn't always easy. But, working at Autoglass in Cambridge, she managed to make ends meet.
Then, when Steven was about 11, Julie started getting terrible dizzy spells. Exacerbated by any kind of movement, they began to plague her at home, at work and especially at the wheel of her car.
"It wasn't scary so much as frustrating, trying to get people to believe there really was something wrong," remembers Julie. "One doctor told me to pull myself together and get back to work."
Eventually given an MRI scan, Julie was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformation. A rare condition, it causes an area of the brain - known as the cerebellar tonsils - to enlarge and protrude into the upper spinal tract.
It is a progressive condition and symptoms vary: in Julie's case, along with increasing dizziness, she felt utterly exhausted.
"Just walking from one room to another left me breathless," she remembers. "The best way I can describe it is like walking in a swimming pool, trying to walk against water. Everything was just so difficult to do."
Surgery was the only option; the plan was to relieve the pressure on Julie's spine by removing a piece of her skull. "There are risks to everything," she adds. "I do remember going down to theatre and thinking 'I hope I wake up' . . ."
Wake up she did. And, as soon as the anaesthetic began to wear off, Julie started to feel better.
But then, just three days after the operation, her health took a sudden nose-dive. Leaking spinal fluid from the wound at the back of her head, Julie contracted meningitis.
The next few weeks passed in a blur of sleep, sickness and lumber punctures. "I'd fall asleep, wake up, be sick, fall asleep, wake up, be sick," she says. "My blood pressure was sky high. And I had a lumber puncture every day for seven days."
In total, Julie spent a month in Addenbrooke's. After coming home, it was months before she was strong enough to leave the house. But, with the help of her daughters and elderly mum, she was determined to build up her strength.
"One day I went for a walk round the block with my mum and a neighbour stopped her for a chat," recalls Julie. "She let go of my arm and, next thing she knew, I'd wandered into the road. I couldn't walk straight."
Meanwhile, Steven had moved north to live with his father. "It was like the more ill I was, the worse his behaviour became," explains Julie. "It got to the point where we could hardly be in the same room. He went to live with his dad and I didn't see him for four years - until he was 17."
Steven turned up on the doorstep, completely out of the blue. Having survived both brain surgery and meningitis since she last saw him, Julie says it was an amazing moment.
"He was so tall," she remembers. "It was wonderful to see him. It would have brought tears to anyone's eyes."
Taking Steven straight round to see his eldest sister, 28-year-old Becky, who was then six months pregnant, Julie says she'll never forget her reaction.
"I called her to say I had something in the car for the baby and I needed her to come out and help me," she continues. "She's not an emotional person but the moment she saw him she ran over, crying her eyes out. It really was fantastic."
Now grandmother to Emily, nearly five, Julie says having her family back together again was a real source of joy. But, battling her way back to fitness, Julie was still unable to work and was thus dependent on disability benefits.
"My mum says I'm tenacious," laughs Julie. "What I wanted was to get better and find a way of supporting myself."
Interested in all things alternative, Julie credits a course in self hypnosis with helping her cope with her illness. "I could remove myself, detach my mind from my body," she explains. "Although I was physically ill, mentally I was fine."
After scouring the internet, Julie hit on the idea of buying new age goods wholesale and then supplying them, via a website, to retailers across the country. Investing in everything from charms and rune sets to incense and spell kits, she taught herself how to build a website - and so www.mysticcharms.co.uk was born.
Funding the entire enterprise herself, solely by scrimping and saving, Julie says the first few months were tough. "I was doing without anyway," she remembers. "But I decided to do without even more.
"I launched the site on a Saturday, then went away for a night. When I came back two people had already signed up as members: it was wonderful to think other people believed in what I was doing."
In the first month alone, Mystic Charms™ clocked up 25 members; the site's membership is now in excess of 400.
Winning a Barclays Business Heroes award in June, Julie has been able to give up disability benefits and rent her own home. And she says that's just the beginning.
"What I'd really like is a mentor like Theo Paphitis or Deborah Meaden from Dragon's Den," says Julie, grinning. "In fact, I'd really like a mentor like Theo Paphitis - you can give him my phone number . . .
"It's not all been easy," Julie concludes. "But I go to bed every night wondering what tomorrow will bring. That's what gets me through. Because if today's been bad, tomorrow can only bring something better."
To find out more about Mystic Charms™, visit www.mysticcharms.co.uk
About Me, Julie Woods, and Why I Set Up Mystic Charms™
Having found the courage to stand up against my husband and walk away from an abusive marriage, I found myself living in a homeless hostel with my three beautiful children. The one thing that kept me strong was my full time job. The days were long and the nights were cold but thankfully the nightmare ended a few months later when we were able to move into a new council home. I fought to keep my children safe and with the help of our local council I was able to give them a more normal and acceptable way of life. I thought I had hit rock bottom, however life was about to throw me another curve ball.
Time passed quickly and my girls grew up, completed school and finally moved out to live independently, leaving my thirteen year old son and me on our own. It was at this point that my health depleted and I was diagnosed with a rare brain condition called..Arnold Chiari Malformation, It was slowly paralysing me from the neck down.
Petrified for my son’s future, I was inwardly terrorised with anxiety and fear, because as the illness weakened me and stripped me of my physical ability, the more withdrawn my son became. The stress of my condition perpetuated my son’s internal worry of losing me. This forced him to cling to his father for security and eventually he went to live with his dad. I understood the needs of my son, but I was also left saddened and alone, unable to see him for nearly four years because of the rift between his dad and me.
The additional stress exasperated my condition, which prevented me from leaving my home and in time it took away the one thing that had kept me strong over the years, my job. Isolation, loneliness and fear embraced me daily.
Eventually I was unable to walk unaided, as any form of movement was difficult, in addition to my severe breathlessness. I had one option, life saving brain surgery, which gave me a very low chance of survival.
My Fight for Survival
Taking the bull by the horns I took a chance and thankfully the operation went relatively well, I was alive! A few days later I developed a wound infection, which ultimately led to meningitis. Recovery was slow, I had spinal fluid drained via lumber punctures every day to relieve the pressure on my brain and very strong intravenous antibiotics filled my veins. I was at deaths door and my family were called to my bedside.
It was dire and I found myself internalising my life’s choices and searching for a reason of why this was happening to me, I now realised that this was truly hitting rock bottom? My thoughts kept my mind strong, as I was determined to live on and be there for my children, to reconnect with my son and to prove to him that although things may be bad in life, you cannot give up! This was my turning point and suddenly I began to fight off the infection and after a month I was allowed to return home.
That was the beginning of my recovery period. Regaining my strength and learning how to walk again urged me on. It was another couple of years when I was informed that I would never be strong and healthy enough to return to full time work. I found myself with no purpose, an empty home, no husband/partner, no job and no money coming in. State benefits only covered the very basics and after so many years relying on them, there was no savings left for any little extras.
Mystic Charms™ Was Launched
It was then that I decided I would have to create an income for myself and after a lot of research the idea for ‘Mystic Charms™’ came to me and I had an instant success with my new business. It was literally an overnight success. I had found an overlooked niche market and I had the necessary drive and determination in order to fill it.
My business, Mystic Charms™, operates as a distributor for giftware and new age products that have a mystical theme. I process all orders, which I receive from my affiliate members as they advertise my products and then I distribute the items to their customers. This removes all unnecessary storage, bulk buying from wholesalers and posting for my members. It is now called Dropshipping.
From the very first day ‘Mystic Charms™’ has grown rapidly and has over 600 affiliate members throughout the UK and internationally. By the end of 2007, I had started to offer ecommerce websites to members to make it easier for them to get started with their own business and at the end of 2008 I added Premium rate Psychic telephone lines. I now offer package deals and ongoing assistance to all members.
What Success Means To Me
Not only have I managed to turn my life around, I am no longer dependant on state benefits, I have also helped hundreds of others to start working towards the same goal of being self reliant or to increase their own income with a proven method of working from home. People inform me how my story has inspired them not to give in to life’s pressures and to aim for something more.
In addition to my business, I have created a community forum where members can chat and help each other. It is a wonderful meeting place and despite the people being in direct competition with each other they strive to assist all, especially new members. I believe this is the 'jewel in the crown' for Mystic Charms™. I note how others have utilised my ideas; however they have not sustained their business, as I feel the forum binds the whole venture by offering a delightful sense of community spirit, something others have not been able to recreate.
I have received some great help and advice from Martyn Owens of NWES and from Business Link. Plus I have the support of my excellent accountant who is also my mentor.
Every day I wake up enthusiastic to start work and every night when I switch of the computer I know I have just had another successful day. Mystic Charms™ is going from strength to strength and my life has transformed, I am happy, confident and most of all proud to be financially providing for myself and to feel a worthwhile member of the community. I have been reunited fully with my son and he is proud of his mother and does not have any fears for his own future, as he now knows he can overcome all obstacles, as I am his proof and living testimony.
Award Winning Mystic Charms™
In June 2008, 18 months after starting Mystic Charms™ I was presented with a prestigious award from Barclays, celebrating Mystic Charms™ growing success.
The success continues and in 2009 Mystic Charms™ was voted one of the Top 100 Start Up Businesses in the UK by Barclays.
Mystic Charms™ Winning Entry 2009
Local Press Coverage 2008
