Melbourne woman’s cancer battles inspire warrior business called Bravery Co
A Melbourne woman, who has battled three brutal bouts of cancer, has come out the other side with a business idea that’s full of “heart”.
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Emily Somers was just 26 when she was first diagnosed with cancer.
She found a lump under her collarbone, and after a series of scans, was told she had a blood cancer called Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Since that first diagnosis, the now 37-year-old has battled cancer a total of three times, enduring 12 rounds of chemotherapy on top of radiation therapy and surgeries.
It’s been a tough 11 years. But it has also led to a new career for the former art director, who now owns a business that is tied up in her cancer journey.
First cancer diagnosis
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is quite common in young females.
It is an age where style and looks can be important for people – so the first question Emily asked her oncologist was: “Am I going to lose my hair?”
“And at end of the appointment he handed me wig and headscarf brochures and it made everything a billion times worse as it’s not what a 26-year-old wants to be wearing,” she told news.com.au.
When the inevitable happened and Emily lost her hair, the then-art director for an advertising company started looking at wig options.
“During this time I started to become very aware of the existing headwear companies for chicks with cancer and they were very daggy and super unstylish,” she said.
She ended up wearing a wig during that time which had a style name called Wendy.
“All wigs have a name and they come in names like Sharon and Wendy and some are a little bit nicer but the ones I wore and owned always seemed to be middle-aged average names,” she said.
“I wore Wendy because I was still working during my first diagnosis. I was super stubborn.
“I didn’t want cancer to slow me down or stuff up life. I had got my first job as an art director and I didn’t want to give it up. So I would have one week for chemo and recovery and the next week I would go into the advertising agency.
“I didn’t want anyone to know and got a wig that was really similar to my natural hair. It was better than my hair, it was nicer styled and never greasy. It was a good safety blanket.”
When Emily’s cancer finally went into remission, she was elated to get her life back on track. She returned to work full-time, dumped a “sh**ty boyfriend, ditched the wig and ran laps of the park.
Second cancer diagnosis
A couple of years later though, in 2013, Emily was devastated when a routine scan revealed her cancer had returned.
“That was a huge blow. I think I was more shattered than when I initially got diagnosed as I knew how hard chemo is and how hard it is to recover and knowing I was going to go backwards and get a stem cell transplant and radiotherapy – that was a huge kick in the guts,” she said.
“So at that point I decided I didn’t want to wear my wig.
“It was the middle of summer, it was hot and itchy,” she said.
“I started playing with headscarves and standing in front of the mirror watching YouTube and I tried to do lots of knots and ties differently.”
The Melbourne woman said an extraordinary thing then happened: She was stopped on the street with the “hipsters of Fitzroy” asking her how she had tied her scarves, while women in the chemo wards also sought her out to teach them her techniques.
“I will never forget the first lady I helped and her change in confidence as we tied it up,” Emily said.
“It was the same scarf but in a different style and she beamed after that. I thought it was so easy to help people but there was nothing out there like that,” she said.
“It seems crazy that with a simple, different style, you can completely change someone’s self esteem and confidence.
“It’s so powerful when you’re going through so much and your energy level and confidence has taken a hit – and your whole body has been completely torn down by chemo – to help in this small way to make someone more confident and walk stronger.”
Business for scarf lovers and cancer haters
The experience gave her the inspiration for her business Bravery Co, a Melbourne-based outfit for scarf lovers and cancer haters.
She started up the business after two years in remission – a huge milestone as it dramatically decreases the chance of relapse, she said.
She bought three scarves from a brand that she had worn while sick, roped in another friend with cancer to model and also called on a photographer mate to take the pictures.
Emily has a strict rule that only people who have or previously had cancer are allowed to model for her business.
In 2016, while in a co-working space in Thailand, she sent her website live.
“I realised I was sourcing scarves and though it was super easy to source big, bold colourful scarves, they had to be soft as your head gets super itchy and a certain length to do different ties and knots,” she said. She added that she “didn’t want them to be polyester as they needed to be breathable”.
“Most of the scarves came with $400 price tags, which is a bit much for cancer warriors to afford.
“I realised I had to start making the scarves myself and I thought I would design them myself but I realised I’m not a good textile designer, so I started collaborating with artists and illustrators I had design crushes on for ages.”
She teamed up with ING bank’s program called Dreamstarters to help the business crowdfund the first collection of scarves.
Beautiful florals and birds are some of the most popular scarf designs, while another bold collaboration has the word ‘f**k’ in the middle of bright flowers.
Emily has also created a range of twist hats and is also making pre-tied hats and caps.
Showcasing cancer survivors
One of her biggest achievements is creating an Instagram platform series where cancer survivors tell their stories.
“They are sometimes really funny and sometimes heavy. But I wanted stories that if I went on to Google and typed in a diagnosis, it would be stories about women that got through it,” she said.
“Everyone goes and googles and it will send up the most horrific, morbid stories and fill you with fear and dread and make you sh*t your pants.
“So I wanted to make them be stories that I couldn’t find and not shy away from fact it’s really hard and horrifically hard with what you go through, but also give them hope and see the silver linings that is this sh*tshow that is cancer.”
She is also doing bravery events, including pamper days at Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, which are sponsored by other businesses.
Third cancer diagnosis
Then, Emily’s cancer returned for a third time.
In 2019, a lump popped up in her neck while she was living in London with her partner. While it was diagnosed as benign, she said her intuition was telling her something wasn’t right and it kept growing.
A biopsy confirmed it was a rare type of cancer called sarcoma, which she said was a lot scarier than her initial Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, as there was a lot less fundraising and treatment.
It required five weeks of radiotherapy as well as major surgery to remove the cancer.
During that operation, she had damage to a lot of nerves which left her unable to lift her arm above her head for a year.
It meant tying her own scarves was out of the picture. (This is what inspired her to expand her scarf range to include twist hats and pre-tied headwear.)
Back at her first diagnosis, Emily had frozen her eggs in the hopes that one day she could become a mum.
After years of cancer treatment, testing had shown her natural egg storage was very low, she was infertile and she was on the cusp of menopause.
So when she had more surgery to fix the nerve damage but then didn’t feel like she was bouncing back, suffering fatigue and nausea, she was terrified the cancer was back.
A miracle called Sidney
But the nausea wasn’t cancer. It was the best surprise of her life.
Emily was pregnant with her “little miracle kid”; a son she named Sidney.
“I was terrified as I thought I had killed him by having an operation,” she said. “It took a little while to be happy and be excited. I had asked my oncologist a month before I had my surgery that I was thinking about starting IVF. He said, ‘No wait another year, we want to get you out of the danger period of relapsing,’” she said.
“I got off the phone and I cried as I was so ready to give it go and try for a baby and a month later, a part of me was so nervous he would say it’s not a good idea, you shouldn’t go ahead with the pregnancy. And the guy that did operation was going to say we gave you so much general anaesthetic that the baby is probably cooked.”
But scans and her specialists gave her the all-clear and she went on to have her now one-year-old son.
Meanwhile her business has made $250,000 since 2019, donating $2 to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre with each scarf sale. But she said more important to her is it “has a lot of heart and helps a lot of people”.
“I’m really proud and I’ve done a lot hard work and I’m definitely not a billionaire from it but I’m so glad I found something I am really happy doing,” she said.
“As fun as advertising is, it doesn’t have a lot of heart in it. This is really rewarding to be able to help girls in a position I have been in multiple times and help in a small way to give them colour and patterns and feel a bit bolder.
“You don’t need to have cancer to wear one of the scarves. It’s something you might like to buy to support business that gives back to cancer research.”
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Originally published as Melbourne woman’s cancer battles inspire warrior business called Bravery Co
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