Hello

I'm a married Mum of two. We live in the gorgeous Cambridgeshire countryside in a tiny village surrounded by rolling fields.

I used to be a nurse up until I had my children. My husband & I educated our children otherwise than at school. Which was an amazing & wonderful journey filled with laughter & sometimes tears. It gave us all a unique opportunity not only to become very close as a family but to see the whole world & life as the "classroom". Both of them have now qualified from college & apprenticeships in their chosen fields & are now working.

Since then we have had to watch my husbands Mother lose her fight to pancreatic cancer. She was very brave. On the day she died my own Mother suddenly was rushed to hospital. After months of fighting the NHS for a proper diagnosis we found out she had 2 rare aggressive brain tumours. There is no cure for this type of brain cancer. She was very young. There was very little help from any organisation for us to cope with this devastating news. No one could tell us what to expect. Unfortunately my area of Cambridgeshire has no Macmillan nurses, we were very much on our own. This turned out to be another journey we didn't expect to make as a family. Another life lesson for our children. How brave & supportive they were to their Grandmothers. We learnt so many things about the NHS, how proactive & strong you have to be. One piece of advice, research your illness inside out & back to front so that you become your own expert. Remember, pharmaceutical companies are a business, they are not there because they care or for your health! Another thing I learnt that helps the patient & the carer is pure essential oils & candles. Much more than relaxing, especially if they are bedridden, this is a way of remembering the outdoors & bringing them inside. Helping them remember happier times in spring, summer or maybe on holiday. Using the oils to ease the suffering. My Mother always smiled as soon as she saw you even though it was so hard for her. We nursed her at home, it was an honour. April will be the anniversary of her death.

I've since had my own debilitating autoimmune illnesses to deal with. I'm not able to physically nurse again but I wanted to do something different. I decided, why not make the kind of candles I wanted around my Mum. Pretty & homely. I also wanted to refill candle holders, you know that lovely gift someone bought too nice to use, so I could enjoy them again. Turn that last cup of a set into a candle to cherish. So uniqcandles.com was born.