About Heather

I often forget quite how much I’ve been through!

When friends and colleagues said, “You’re so brave, I don’t know how you do it!”, I didn’t feel brave at all. I felt as if I was dying inside. After months of unexplained deteriorating health I was diagnosed with a stroke and blood cancer in quick succession. I had lost my health and my life. 

But, somewhere beyond the struggle was an ember refusing to be extinguished; a battle I was not willing to lose. 

At just the right moment, one of my team shared the most eloquent words: “You’ve had a soft brush with the fragility of the human existence.” 

This helped me to realise the enormity of what had happened to me, allowing space to grieve the life I’d lost while inspiring me to move forward with a growth mindset, even when I didn’t feel brave or motivated.

My experiences helped me to see that in these difficult situations, you can either carry on as you are, keeping yourself cooped up, locked away, dying physically, mentally and spiritually, or you can take one step in the other direction. 

And another, and another…. 

Until your life is no longer recognisable. 

Having a stroke in my 40s triggered the collapse of almost everything around me. Most of my life needed rebuilding in one way or another, and anything that didn’t collapse, I’ve since chosen to take apart and rebuild, so that I could create a life that works with me and not against me.

It’s been an incredibly difficult journey, with many tears and plenty of frustration, but now I live each day with a smile on my face and curiosity for the future. 

I feel I’m incredibly fortunate to have been gifted a second chance. That gift inspires me everyday to stop putting off my dreams until some arbitrary retirement date in my 60s! Why wait? It might be a cliché, but the present moment is all we have.

If you chose not to wait until retirement to follow your dreams, what would you do now? Where would you go? Who would you want to be with? What would you let go of? How might life feel?

One of my biggest life accomplishments is getting to the point I’m at now and leaving behind everything that no longer supports my growth, wellbeing and happiness.

Just a few years ago, I was living my lifelong dream of running my own successful physiotherapy, serious injury and rehabilitation business. But once I became ill, over time I realised the long hours and lack of support weren’t doing my health any favours. This led me to explore new avenues that would allow me to intentionally create a future that would be sustainable for my health, meet all my needs and bring me joy while enabling me to share my professional and personal experiences. 

HKM22 Consulting, started in 2023, now combines 30 years of professional healthcare practice where I specialised in return to work after injury and illness, with experience of small business ownership and management and implementing return to work strategies for my personal recovery, with somatic trauma-informed coaching and intuitive mentorship. Through personal insights, I aim to help others to see that losing parts of your old life or deciding to give up that one thing you believed was your big dream may not be the failure or disappointment you imagine.

I now support entrepreneurs and small business owners to create a life of freedom: managing long-term illness or injury with the demands of work and business in a way that fosters flexibility, freedom and connection to purpose. 

 ....I help small business owners who are afraid of losing their business after illness or injury. When you work with me I help you get back in the driver's seat of your business to regain focus, purpose and energy so that you can love your work AND live the life you want without ruining your health. 

When we can see a health crisis as an opportunity and motivation to create a lifestyle with more energy, fulfillment and time to do all the things we love then life starts to work with us not against us.

And if I can navigate serious long-term health conditions and transform my life, I promise that you can too! 

“Heather is a wonderfully intuitive coach – she is a calm anchor to encourage exploration, and helped me to arrive at some very helpful insights. She was also very receptive to hearing when something wasn’t working for me, and gracefully shifted gears into something that got the flow going again nicely.” – Joanne 

Throughout my long recovery period, I realised I needed to approach my work differently.

I thought I had been doing ok, but I see now that I had a lack of boundaries and a tendency to put others first ahead of my own needs. I knew I wanted to continue to help other people, but I realised that my work and lifestyle had to come together to support ME.

Selling my business was tough, but I had to be honest about what was most important to me: My long-term health and happiness, and the ability to keep working (and enjoying my work) for as long as I need to.

I definitely do not get everything right all the time, but I’m always working through the discomfort to find my truth.

There comes a time when you realise life or business (or both?!) aren’t working and you have to decide whether to make significant changes or to walk away, however challenging that may be.

I actually feel fortunate now (I definitely did not feel that way at the time!) to have had an experience that’s prompted me to live life differently, rather than drifting from one life stage to the next.

I believe that what happens to you in life is what you’re here to share with others. When I look back at what’s happened to me, I can see how it all came together for me.

“Heather is an expert by experience and expertise....she speaks very much around the mindset, the emotional and social context of recovery from injury and illness.”

- Prof. Laura Serrant OBE