Women's Culture Jill

42 J I L L A U S T R A L I A MY 20’S WEREN’T TEXT-BOOK, THEY BEGAN WITH A DEBILITATING ILLNESS AND ENDED WITH A BUSINESS WHICH HAD TURNED OVER $1 MILLION IN ITS FIRST YEAR AND HAS SURVIVED AND THRIVED TO IT’S 5TH YEAR. I t all started when I began my first job in PR at a health & wellness agency, except just before starting, I began to experience flu-like symptoms which I managed to ignore. However, one week of swollen glands, fatigue, headaches turned into 2 months and I just couldn’t ignore it anymore. I saw a handful of doctors, but none could provide me with answers that relieved my symptoms. I was fortunate enough to be working at an agency which specialised in preventative health, and while I was not a great picture of health, working there taught me a lot about it especially the notion of treating the cause and not the symptom, but I was still no closer to figuring out what my cause was. Over the years I carried on battling with recurrent colds, it wasn’t until I had my 9th one for the year that I was finally referred to an immunologist. When I was told I had an auto-immune condition, it was a moment of relief but also overwhelming. Here I was in my mid 20’s with a condition Peta Shulman FOUNDER OF GOODNESSME BOX Starting a business in my 20 s after a chronic illness