I had spent years looking for more natural solutions to reduce my risk. I saw a holistic nutritionist, an iridologist and two Naturopathic Doctors. They were great, but when it came to supplementation, I couldn’t find any in the therapeutic doses I required to restore my energy or take away my chronic sore throat.

That’s when the idea came: Franco and I would seek the guidance and counsel of natural health professionals and start our natural health products business. We would start a company that would educate people about the benefits of natural medicine and bring it to the mainstream. We were going to help people take ownership of their health with safe and effective products – the kind I’d been personally seeking for so long.

The start up of our family business, CanPrev, which stands for “You Can Prevent” was such an exciting time.

We launched our first line of therapeutics in January 2006. Slowly and purposefully we grew, carefully assembling the talented group of individuals that comprise the CanPrev family today. And as the company flourished, so did my family, as I gave birth to two more children in 2010 and 2011. I was in my forties by then, and my prayers and dreams had been answered in more ways than one.

We knew that as a young couple taking this risk was dangerous but, from where we had come from, not knowing if I would be alive or dead, taking the risk wasn’t that hard. In hindsight, you see so clearly how your story was being knit together and how you were meant to come to the point you were going to get to.

We had always dreamt of starting something entrepreneurial. Never in our wildest dreams did we think it would be this wonderful, this gratifying. Never did we think we could help so many people. In many ways for me, it was a way of honouring those who I met along my journey who had succumbed to Breast Cancer. CanPrev is a way to carry the torch for them, as well as, to give hope and encouragement to those here and let Canadians know that there are options.