My personal journey to better health and wellbeing with Simone Thomas #1

From corporate inner-city life to beach-loving wellness expert and entrepreneur, hear more about my personal journey to health and wellbeing.

In episode 1 of Living Life Well I provide a bit of insight into my background, chat about what drives me and how Simone Thomas Wellness came about.Hear how I’ve used food and nutrition in my family’s and client’s lives to improve their health, energy levels and day-to-day journey’s  as well as treat conditions such as hair loss, skin conditions, thyroid issues and neurological disorders. 

This episode of Living Life Well covers:

• Simone’s own experiences as an endometriosis sufferer 
• The importance of cervical screening
• Taking control of your health in your late-twenties
• The impact of the correct vitamins and minerals
• Skin conditions, hair loss treatment and diet
• Neurological disorders
• Diet and nutrition in children and babies

Learn more at https://simonethomaswellness.com/ and reach out on instagram https://www.instagram.com/simonethomaswellness/

Transcript

Simone Thomas : 0:17

Hi guys, welcome to Living Life Well with Simone Thomas. Today I am going to tell you a little bit about my crazy life and my journey to what's kind of got me to where I am today. I suggest you go and get a drink before we buckle in for this one because it is a bit of an emotional roller coaster. But hopefully it will give you a little bit more insight into myself, what drives me, what has been going on the last five years and how kind of Simone Thomas wellness came about. Okay, so my kind of CV history has had ups and downs I have been fired from a few jobs. I'm not going to lie. So one of the reasons I cannot be now sacked because I own my own company, but kind of before Simone Thomas salons came about, Simone Thomas wellness, I worked in the corporate industry originally started in Telecom. So my very, very first job apart from kind of working in Argos and selling double glazing at night when I was at college, which actually I did get kicked out of college. But that's another story for another time. I worked for a company called KJC Mobile Phones, which was you know, as it sounds, selling mobile phones, but that was back in kind of the boom of the Nokia that had the snakes, the interchangeable fasias. So I always kind of started originally and kind of telco and then from there. I then moved up to Redding and worked for a company, at the time they were called WorldCom MCI that then changed into Verizon of which you majority of you would have heard of. They're a huge big American company. They've got mobile phone networks, voice data and IP. I worked there for quite a few years. But then I started to have a lot of kind of lady problems. I had a lot of issues with my stomach. It was going on for years of kind of IBS, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, but could never really get 100% diagnosis because typically, I would have a flare up, you know, I'd have a lot of swelling, I'd have a lot of bleeding. By the time you had got to actually see a consultant kind of eight to 10 weeks later, that inflammation had kind of died down. So then they were just going from kind of the things that you were telling them about the swelling. So typically, you know, a lot of people with stomach conditions get told, "oh it's IBS". So then you go on to specific drugs for IBS, but over the years, things then kind of evolved into more kind of ulcerative colitis, and then actually, probably, - was I 30? Maybe just before I was 30... now, I think maybe just after actually - they actually then found that actually, it was endometriosis. So it wasn't anything bowl related. But during kind of my time within kind of the IT corporate world, there was a huge big shift going on at MCI WorldCom, and redundancies were kind of there if we wanted to take it. And I actually remember putting my name down at the time being told, no, you're not one that is going. But then kind of explained, well, actually, I've got, you know, these stomach issues going on, I believe I need to have a number of operations. And I don't want to take kind of time off, because I don't actually know how I feel about what I want to do in my career. So actually, I did take voluntary redundancy and took probably about six or nine months out, I kind of got to where I wanted to be with kind of my health, my stomach. I think, then after that, and again, this is actually going to be in my book that I'm bringing out I had met my ex and it's kind of a funny story because if you kind of look at it now he actually saved my life in a very strange way. So we met typically it was a blind date. He was introduced to me by somebody I used to work with at this company. And oddly enough, he'd then moved from London to work into the Reading one. So we dated, we went out for dinner and a few drinks and whatever and within, you know, a couple of weeks, you obviously are going to take the relationship to the next level, so we slept together, and you know, and didn't kind of think anything about it, you know, in the relationship was amazing. And then about three months in, I just didn't kind of feel quite well down below. So my lady garden just didn't feel like herself. So I obviously, you know, had the chat with him to say, you know, what's your kind of sexual history been like, what's your past, he'd been in a long term relationship that had broken down and then typically he had kind of gone out and sown a few seeds shall we say, across, you know, Berkshire and London and God knows where else. So he actually went and got tested and it actually came back that he had chlamydia. So obviously, I needed to go and get tested. And luckily because the age I was, I was under the age where they would normally do a smear for my age. But the nurse actually said, "Well, you know what, your partner's got this diagnosis, let's just do everything because you've never had it done before and you're obviously sexually active." And thank God she did because she did a smear. And it was from that smear that it came back that had quite aggressive cells. And then I was then taken into hospital within two weeks. I had actually dumped him after kind of finding out about the chlamydia diagnosis, but then actually we did get back together because I kind of looked at it and thought, God you know if this hadn't have happened, and the age that I was at, and also the fact that you know you didn't really talk about smears kind of 20 years ago it's only really been since Jade Goody. And obviously unfortunately with what happened with her there was a big campaign and there was an increase with people going for smears and testing. I would never have gone so I most definitely wouldn't be here today. So I always kind of say that he saved my life. We were together actually for a very long time for eight, nine years. And the funny part to this story is that if we had got married, my initials would have been STD. So it actually was meant to be at the time so it always does kind of make me laugh. And I'm obviously not going to mention his name because it's very private. And for me, I can kind of laugh about it. But you know, he's got a new life, he's got a family and you know, we still do talk, but when you kind of look at things in life, where they say, you know what, everything happens for a reason, the good, the bad, the ugly, but at the time, you don't realise why I can now look back and kind of laugh and think God, you know, if we did get married, my initials would have been STD which actually saved my life. So it's kind of quite funny. So I went through a lot kind of health wise, you know, in my 20s, and things change my mother, kind of behind the scenes of me growing up as a teenager was suffering with Motor Neurone Disease. So I think she originally was diagnosed when I was about 16. But she didn't want to obviously let me know that he tried keep it from me because I had just done my GCSEs, I was meant to continue at college to do A Levels but I had gone to an all girls school. I was then unleached to the big wide world of boys and college and makeup and padded bras and nightclubs and BMW that let's just say college didn't work out very well and not how my mom had planned because she had worked very hard to put me into private education. One because my father had passed away when I was a lot younger. So for her to kind of give us stability, you know, private education, boarding school was the best kind of place for us. I kind of rebelled a little because I had gone to a naval school. So it was very regimented, very sports, very music and I never really found myself I was kind of the Oliver Twist of the school. You know, I remember my first private school my PE knickers. I think we grey by the end of the term because they were that old that the blue had kind of died out of them, but my My mom was struggling to kind of, you know, give us the education and provide us, you know, with all the other luxuries. But when I look back now, it was amazing, you know, to have that kind of structure. But I definitely felt like the outsider. You know, I had princesses, at our school, so for me, my mom had a very very old rusty Subaru that I'm surprised that even had four wheels, you know, it was a very different upbringing. But the schooling, you know, has definitely kind of made me who I am today. Because you're kind of left to your own devices, you have to learn about routine and planning, and you have a lot of structure, you don't really get free hours. Everything's kind of regimented. And I suppose that's what's kind of helped me later on in life in kind of the corporate world, you know, having sales targets and, you know, KPIs, and all of those kinds of things to kind of hit, which then has obviously helped now kind of later on in life, you know, owning my own company, but also expectations from the team and how to make manage them. And I have in the past had a few run ins with a few old managers. Like I said, I have been sacked in the past I'm not gonna lie. I think one of them was Tie Rack but I was very, very young. And actually it wasn't even my fault we were meant to go to on a training day and two of the girls wanted to go and have a tattoo instead of going to this training event and then they decided, "oh, let's tell them that the car's broken down and the AA didn't get to us in time." They ended up breaking in the interrogation process and I ended up sticking to the story and then I ended up getting sacked but me and Tie Rack, we're definitely not going to have a long journey, you know, a career history. And then I even actually believe it or not work for a company called Rightmove, which all of you would definitely have heard of. And yeah, I didn't get sacked, but they did try to make it a little bit uncomfortable by moving my areas but what they didn't realise is I love driving. I love cars. I'm a real car fan. So for me to be in my sports car and having to do an extra 60 to 100 miles a day was like heaven because I would think that I'm on a Grand Prix track. So it's best now that I definitely kind of have my own business. And you know, because I can't really tell myself off. Kim does, who's my manager for the salon. She's the only one that kind of pulls me in line, but I do kind of need that. So kind of over the 20 years, a lot has changed physically, mentally, my mother did pass away when I was 27. And at that kind of time, you know, I was a little bit lost. I was living a crazy life near London. I had worked for an online internet sports programme. So it's all about placing bets on absolutely anything. So whether it was sporting, what celebrities would get divorced, like literally anything that you can place a bet on at Bet 365 or Ladbrokes, and that was kind of a morning show. And it was amazing, you know, the pay was incredible. The lifestyle was incredible. You only had to do like three hours of work, but it was seven days a week and I kind of took that for granted. I didn't save, I was living a crazy life in London, partying, drinking, you know, just wasting Money. And it was only after my mother passed away when I was 27 that I kind of was thinking, "What the hell are you doing? Like you're not old, but you're not young." I remember being 18 and my brother, I think it was his 21st or 22nd birthday. And I think "God, you're really old." Like, even though he's four or five years older than me, thinking, "oh, I've got ages till I get to that age." And then he was then 30 and I was 25. And I thought, "God, actually, I've seen changes in him. I need to kind of grow up and be a little bit more responsible." And I think I probably had a lot of anger and a lot of hate because of one losing my mum and you know what she was going through. Our relationship was very much like app fab. It was the love hate and she's always said that, you know, and I love her, you know, dearly. She's my mum. She's incredible. But we're very similar. Very, very headstrong, very stubborn. So naturally, you don't always get on as well if you are kind of opposites, but yeah, we had you know, a very up and down relationship, something's I obviously do regret you do, you know, later on in life wish that you had more time. But she was very unwell for a very very long time. And, you know, the age I was when she was unwell I was a teenager you know, so you don't really grow up you're kind of a bit selfish and you know, you want to explore the world and kind of find yourself and you don't want to have to spend every Christmas with your mum because next Christmas she might not be here and have it forced upon you, that you kind of, you know, rebel a little bit. So kind of 27-28 she had passed away and I think by my 30th I had moved actually to Bournemouth Dorset, my brother lived here with his family. I had come here for the summer and had fell in love with the place you had the most amazing summer it was boiling hot. I think the Sand Polo event I went to and it was incredible. I mean, I was thinking "wow, this is like sunny London with a beach still a bit of a party lifestyle but then you've got the forest and you know some like normal things to do as well." So I moved down here kind of wasn't working because I actually had another business prior to the salon so during my time in kind of sports TV as such it was a huge male dominated industry you know it was mainly men that would watch the show and I basically was the trolley dolly in the corner of the show you know with a sporting mind so off the back of that we had had an idea of why don't we set up like a lingerie and you know like a sex toy company very similar to Ann Summer's because we had girls that would do photo shoots and calendars and whatnot and stuff as well. And I had also had previous experience in that because I had modelled for Nuts, Fast Car, I think The Sun Online you know, so I had always kind of done a bit of lingerie and glamour modelling and stuff as well. But at 5 ft 11 I didn't look quite right next to somebody that was 5 ft 4. So eventually you know you're confidence gets a little bit knocked and I just felt like a giraffe. So I kind of just called that a day. But when I moved down here, I'd you know, was still running the lingerie company online. And that was really, you know, successful. But again, I was working from home every day on my own had moved here didn't really know anybody was still in my pyjamas at midday. So a bit like a sloth really, which is not a great look and not what you want to want to be doing either at the age of 30. So I then decided, actually, what do I want to do? I knew I'd always wanted to do something after losing my mum that would help people. Because even now, when I get people in to see me that are unwell or you know, especially children, I cry, I'm a nightmare, you know, but clients don't mind that because you know, they're crying and they can see that you actually care. So it was kind of from there where I'd had my own experiences with hair loss due to the the kind of cervical sales that I was talking about earlier and kind of stomach issues that I thought we'll actually why don't I create kind of like a parlour I thought like this American parlour that does hair, wigs, makeup and beauty, and it's a place for women to come in to get transformed, whether it's to do with hair loss, or they've just lost loads of weight, but they don't know who they are, and they want a kind of a makeover. So that opened originally kind of eight years ago, and that was actually called MWAH so makeup, wigs and hair. And the building that I rented at the time, I thought was massive. And within about nine months, I realised "God, I need somewhere 10 times the size of this", because we were getting people from all over. We had a huge influx of people that needed wigs for cancer. And it's not something that I'd really kind of thought about. At the beginning with a business plan. I didn't even have a business plan. I literally had had this idea, bought the domain name and then six months later it was kind of open and just kind of went from there. So within kind of two years I had outgrown the space so much and was doing so much work with the private hospitals, the NHS on hair loss, I had gotten qualified in various hair loss wig courses, skin conditions that I then opened a bigger premises which is now known as you know, Simone Thomas Salon and has been there for kind of six years. And then since then I kind of grew from a team of 3 to now to team of 17. We have, you know, trichologists, you know, hair stylists, nutritionalists, homeopathy, if that's the right word, I never can get that word out. I do bioenergetics, I've requalified in nutrition, because I realised from the hair loss side, it's not the hair loss that you're treating. It's the cause internally and it's normally you know, stress, medication, illness, imbalance, fungus, bacteria, where if you treat that naturally your hair will start to grow back. And that's kind of how it evolved kind of over the years but kind of eight years ago, I never thought I was going to be where I am today and kind of how I've got into you know, the hair loss and the nutrition side and kind of how Simone Thomas Salon then involved and came about. And then it was only probably four and a half, five years ago, maybe a little bit more. My children's Father has a brain condition, he has a brain tumour that can't be removed, it's there, it has been treated and it has been shrunk. But it's an ongoing daily journey in the sense of kind of medication and, you know, good days and bad days. And over the years, I had seen, you know, the effects that it had had on his health, he'd have good days, you know, like anybody with that condition and bad days. And a huge thing that I would notice is if you know there was too much coffee or too much alcohol or, you know, bad food takeaways, the difference it would make with how he would feel. So that's when I thought well actually, I've read books about the power of food and that you know, you can heal your body and you can improve yourself by choosing the right foods, the right vitamins and the right minerals. So I started to do evening research, I was buying probably six books a month off Amazon like literally the Amazon parcels kept coming and actually they still do. And I kind of just really got my head down into learning more about thyroid and gut connection. And as it then happened, the people that had come in to see me for hair loss, a lot of them had thyroid issues, a lot of them had hormone issues, a lot of them had skin conditions. And I was starting to see a really big picture of kind of the common factors that were affecting people's hair, you know and skin and weight. And because of obviously, you know at home and what he was going through, it was even more personal to me to kind of go away learn and research. And then something amazing happened a miracle. I had got told I'd never have children, one because I had a lot of my cervix removed but also because of my endometriosis. It's a very, very small chance that that would ever happen, but also because of his tumour he just assumed that was kind of told, you know, you're never going to have children. And then as it happens, you know, I still call it my miracle baby. So Ashton, who's now four and a half came along, which was, you know, absolutely incredible. He's the most amazing baby. But weirdly kind of a couple of months into breastfeeding. He suffered with a lot of skin conditions. So a lot of eczema, but quite severe that it kind of looked like it's like burns. And it turned out he was allergic to breast milk into dairy. He had a lot of stomach issues. So I then had to put him on to a new formula like goat's milk. So then again, I started to become really interested in children and allergies and food and what I was eating, how it would affect him. So I went away and kind of researched more and that's where I thought, well, actually, I can learn surely online and open learning course about nutrition and weight management that also looks into children. So that's what I kind of went in to do whilst having a newborn and then something happened. So I had just had Ashton. I had implants, I think when I was 21-22 it was my Easter Friday present to myself and I remember my mom, I took her for pizza in Salisbury and said "I'm going to come down for the weekend and see you, let me take you for food" and her first response was, "You're not pregnant, are you?" And I was like, "no, no, no, I just want to take you for pizza." So anyway, at pizza, I said, "Well, guess what Mum I've booked myself in to go and have my boobs done on the Friday." And she was like, "Oh, God, like do you really have to?" But I'm very tall, and I've got big hips and I've always been a boob girl. All my girlfriends that have got boobs will always tell you that I'm just obsessed by boobs. So for me, it felt like the right thing to do. So after obviously having Ashton, like you do, you know, being pregnant, I tried to breastfeed, my boobs had expanded and then they just weren't how I wanted them to be. So I had booked in to go and see another boob surgeon literally when Ashton was like four or five months old, but also for a scan because I started to develop a lot of lumps into my inner arm. And it was there that I found out that I was pregnant again. So I'd already had one miracle that he was looking into hopefully go and have my boobs readjusted to find out what actually you're pregnant again. And I was thinking this cannot be I've got my miracle baby like, what the hell is going on? And then now obviously, I have William who's now three and a half. So he's my second miracle baby. So yeah, that's kind of, you know, being kind of the journey of where kind of Simone Thomas wellness came about because William unfortunately, some very horrific events kind of happened whilst he was born, or you know, just after he caught a virus that kind of probably two three weeks old. That meant that he slept but I'd taken them to the doctors and they just said, "you're just very lucky just got very sleepy baby. You know, don't be alarmed" and I remember going to Portsmouth to Gunwharf Quays and he wasn't even dream feeding like literally he didn't want to get out of the pram so we took him to Portsmouth hospital. It was quite late by the time we were even going to be seen like 10-11 o'clock at night and Ashton was obviously there. And I just said, you know, it's not fair on Ashton, there's no where for him, let's just go home, William seems to have perked up a little bit. So went home and then two days later, I thought, you know what, something's really not right. So come back to the doctors again, he perks up typically in the doctor surgery. Doctor just checked his eyes and temperature was like, "No, he's fine." And then a few hours later, I just had this feeling. You know what, there's something not quite right here. This this is not me being lucky, you know, with having a hypno birth this is a baby that for whatever reason, just is not you know, not 100%. So I took him up to Poole hospital and within 45 seconds I think of me being there, the lady at reception, seeing him going into the side room, they rushed him straight into recuss, and then kind of events unfolded over those couple of weeks. It turned out I think at 10 days they found that he had caught the rotavirus so it's fine for a child to kind of get that virus if they've had the, you know, immunisation, but he was a newborn and we believe it came from the nursery that Ashton was going to because a few weeks before Ashton had diarrhoea and sickness, but they just thought it was the chicken and rice dish that they had that day that it was a bit too spicy. But it turns out William caught the rotavirus and they were doing gas bloods and sending samples to London to Southampton hospital and luckily I think on the 10th day in a in a stool sample, they actually found the rotavirus but at that time, him being in it was just me and him in the room on our own. He was obviously wired up to everything, vitamin drips and whatever. Now he's like the hulk, he's the most strongest boy ever, that whatever they've pumped into him, he is like ready to rumble. But he was so ill after that, it had kind of destroyed his stomach. He was getting badly constipated, a lot of bleeding, a lot of vomiting. You know, just not normal and without sounding rude when he was passing stools they were the size of an adult and even the specialist said "Good God, someone so young shouldn't be passing this, this is not quite right. So we changed his diet. I did a lot of research into probiotics trying to get a lot of super greens into him and and luckily now you know, he's nearly four we've not had any issues in the last kind of, you know, 12 months. But whilst that was going on, their father had a horrific seizure. So I had William to deal with, I had Ashton, I had also opened another clinic in Wokingham, which is actually one of the biggest business mistakes I've ever made in my life. I just took on too much I'd had Ashton to then find out I was pregnant again. So I was doing, you know, a 130 mile trip, you know, weekly if not twice a week, staff were letting me down up there and it wasn't the same culture or the environment that I had had in Dorset, you know, I've got an incredible team down here, that have supported me for years. They're mature. They just got on with the job. Wokingham was a complete wake up call. And it was a real shame because I put like you would do with any business venture absolutely everything into it. So that had opened I had William who would be quite horrifically poorly. I'm lucky in the sense that I have a lady that comes and looks after them in the day, a nanny, so it has allowed me to get back to work. But whilst this was all going on, their father had the most horrific seizure. I mean, it is probably the worst day of my life to actually see someone going blue, you know, bleeding and whatever. And he was rushed into Poole hospital, again, back into the resuss room, which is a room I never want to go in. And even then, and you know, when I kind of look back, I don't remember the full events about it, but I remember them saying like, "go get the boss lady" or "go get the big boss" or whatever, whoever it was that they were talking about and this lady came down and she was kind of, you know, observing him, they put him in for CT and MRI scans. But again, he couldn't talk, if he was talking and it was kind of back to front, he was shaking, his whole body was locked up, you know from a seizure. And I just remember them saying to me, like, "prepare for the worst." So I'm thinking, Jesus Christ, I've got two boys under the age of two. I've got a business in Dorset. I did also have a clinic in London. I've got this massive building in Wokingham and it's just me, you know, I haven't got any parents for support. My brother's got his own family. So he's got his own life. And you just think "What the bloody hell am I going to do? Like how am I going to get through this you know, how am I going to survive?" And I remember that day in the hospital when they you know said "just prepare for the worst. You know, if he comes out of this, he's going to be pretty much a vegetable. Lucky if he's going to walk" and I'm thinking "Good god, there's this this gorgeous guy 6ft 2 who's a massive surfer. You know, loves life loves outdoor activities. He would not want to be trapped in his body, but I could tell that he could hear but he couldn't communicate back. And I had seen that with my mum because with Motor Neurone Disease, you kind of resort back to being a baby. So you've got your adult mind, your body knows what you've experienced in life, the good and the bad, but you just physically can't get it out. You can't move you can't feed yourself. You can't take yourself to the toilet. And I was going through all of this again, you know, I was seeing this with with their father. And it was horrific, absolutely horrific. And I remember going home that night and thinking right, I need to now put things in place to either if he does come out of the hospital that you know, he'll be with the boys, I'll get care, you know, we'll look after him or whatever that needs to be kind of done. I remember emailing his best friend to say right, this is my thoughts. This is what I feel that I should do and I was on it. And I do remember his best friend coming back to me saying bloody hell, like something along the lines of you know, do you want to run my company for me or whatever. And I even though I was scared, and whatever I knew, no matter what happens, I was going to get through it because I'd gone through a lot anyway, in my younger years. And I suppose the military upbringing at school was actually a good thing it was kicking in for survival without realising it. So luckily, and it is a miracle. He came out of hospital eventually was able to talk things were a little bit back to front trying to read and all of those kinds of things as you would expect, but within kind of a year, I would say 98% back to how he always was, you know, surfing, had even running, which again, is a huge miracle for hospital for the London Marathon, which was a really incredible emotional day, because, yeah, just knowing what you've gone through, but also the effects of the marathon would have on anybody, let alone somebody that had been through those health risks, yet was extremely emotional. You know, you do worry that something's going to happen. And then he went off and did it another year and since then has, you know, improved and again, has improved his own mindset and his own wellness. With everything, as I've sort of just been talking about over the last five years that has gone on, I've realised the power of the mind, but also the power of what you do to your body. So, you know, food is key water is key nutritions vitamin supplements are really, really key for a healthy mind. And on one of the other shows, I have Chris Billam-Smith in who's a boxer. And we didn't talk about it so much in the podcast, but kind of the after show, when we were just talking, he was saying about mindset and just even learning how to breathe and expand your brain, the positive effects it has on the body. And I have most definitely seen it experienced it firsthand, in probably the most horrific ways that has made me want to go on and learn more, and I'm not an expert, I'm not a doctor, but I've got a real passion and a real personal attachment to all of these kind of things that have gone on. And that's really where kind of Simone Thomas wellness started from. I was kind of mixing formulations, you know, in my kitchen, you know, filling Ashton and William with probiotics. And then I was looking at, you know, natural remedies for thyroid support, remedies for people that have been through seizures and have damaged their brain, to a point and to make them stronger. And that's kind of where, you know, Simone Thomas wellness came from, but also with the attachment from hair because with William's hair, he was bald for quite a few years, he looked like a little bald duck. And I knew the gut connection with hair was so strong that I thought, right if I provide him with enough probiotics, good and bad bacteria, you know, his hair eventually will get enough nutrients for the body for it to kind of be like, you know, Ashton and everybody else's. And actually now he's got the most gorgeous mane of hair. And because of my background with hair loss, I thought, right, you know, it's not just about thyroid, it's about overall complete balance in the body a bit like a jigsaw, he can't have a missing piece, it all needs to piece together. And that's kind of where, you know, Simone Thomas wellness came from the programmes. And then kind of other things that are going to happen in the future are kind of evolving from with other products that, you know, I'm kind of in early stages of development, but it all comes from unfortunately, very, very horrific times in my life, but also clients, you know, some of my clients have been to hell and back, you know, the stories, the things that they've been through, you know, and you're gonna think, you know, I see rape victims, I see burn victims, cancer patients, people that have got six months to live, you know, so it's a real array, and then you have your five, six year olds, that you don't want any child to be ill, you would take their place, but they're suffering with forms of hair loss or severe skin conditions, and they're just not getting anywhere. You know, and that is life, changing. To see those changes for the mum and dad to then you know, come into the salon with a bottle of wine or some flowers to say, "you've changed our daughter or our son's life" is incredible. And you always look at them like they're your own, because once you've had children, you don't want any child to ever get poorly. But that's kind of where it all evolved from. So from kind of a crazy corporate background, going into TV, you know, selling lingerie and without being rude a few dildos along the way to then going into hair loss to nutrition and bioenergetics. It's kind of the path that I've kind of taken, but I think it was the path that was always meant to happen, you know, the good and the bad, has definitely made what I am today, and it's definitely given me kind of the positive outlook that I am, you know, either as a boss or you know, as an individual. But yeah, it has been, you know, an amazing journey, not one that I would ever wish on anybody and I definitely would not want to repeat the horrific times, but you get through it, you know, it makes you stronger and it makes you realise what what's important in life? So that's kind of literally what's happened for the last five years. So I'm lucky I'm still here. I have definitely a lot more grey hair. I've definitely lost a lot of hair. But yeah, it's you know, it has been an amazing journey. And yeah, I wouldn't change it because I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now, but I most definitely wouldn't want to go through it again for sure. Thanks for listening. If you want to send me your questions, emails do, you can follow me and the podcasts and social media. You can find me on Simone Thomas wellness. I'm also Facebook Simone Thomas Wellness World and I just really love to hear from you.