After battling an 18-month-long staph infection and feeling let down by the medical system and the unsuccessful treatments she was prescribed, out of sheer desperation, Hannah Cadwallader set out to create her own healing balm. Not only did she help heal her own skin infection, but when word spread, she began to help many others with skin conditions too, such as eczema, acne scars, dermatitis and psoriasis. After taking four years off to heal from life-saving brain surgery, the busy mother of three is excited to continue sharing her passion for natural products. She handcrafts all of her products in small batches and is committed to helping others with their skin problems. Here she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind Hannah’s Bumble Balm, the challenges she has overcome, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Initially, I had no plan of creating a business. I kind of just fell into it. I had left school to become a mother, with a passion for science and health, but still so young and free that I had no idea what I truly wanted to do with my life. It wasn’t until I was I was a little older, in my early 20s and in a very low place, struggling as a solo mum with two young children and battling a chronic 18-month-long staph infection which had eaten away at most of my face, that I stumbled upon an idea that ignited a fire inside me I had no idea I possessed.
The fire started after so many let downs with the medical system and pharmaceutical products. I couldn’t handle any more antibiotics; I couldn’t stand the bleach baths and lotions, potions and creams anymore. My face wept and scabbed and the sores kept spreading. I lost my physical beauty and with it, my self esteem. Out of sheer desperation to help heal my skin from a flesh eating bacteria, I made my own natural balm.
Trial and error of course, but I quickly saw results.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
My first ever batch of balm I made in a four-litre saucepan on my stovetop. I was financially supported by the solo parent benefit, and although I didn’t have a lot of spare money each week, I took a gamble with my allocated grocery funds and instead of buying food, I bought beautiful nourishing skin oils. I mixed these together with some beeswax I’d received as a gift two years prior, and put the product in tiny jars, kept some for myself – and sold the rest through Facebook groups.
Word spread locally and within a month or so, I was financially able to support myself and my children with the money I made from selling my balms. The feedback was incredible. Not only did I heal my own skin infection, but I also helped so many other people with skin conditions, eczema, acne scars, dermatitis and psoriasis.
As word spread further, people from different towns wanted to try my balm too, so I started taking orders through Facebook messenger and spending my days while my kids were at daycare and school, packing up my balms into courier bags and taking washing baskets full of packaged product to the post office.
I finally started to feel as though my suffering was coming to an end.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
My biggest breakthrough is recent. I opened my business in 2015, had a very successful journey and such an inspiring story to go with it. I managed to get my products stocked in supermarkets, sent around 250-300 orders per month and I had a factory. I truly thought I’d hit the jackpot and all my hard work had paid off. Alas, it didn’t come so easy.
My health deteriorated fast and in 2019 I was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The tumour created a disease called Cushings Disease. It excreted cortisol (the stress hormone) and had been sitting in my head for roughly 8-9 years wreaking havoc on my physical and mental health. I still don’t know how I managed as well as I did, but when you are passionate about something, and I truly was, you find a way to continue to overcome.
I closed my business down just before my brain surgery.
My breakthrough came at the end of 2024, four years later, recovered from Cushings Disease but now learning to live with secondary Addisons Disease. I decided that I didn’t want to just sit down and watch my life go by anymore. Just because I have a disease, it doesn’t mean I have to live like I am sick forever.
My biggest breakthrough was the realisation that life doesn’t wait for anyone and if you have a dream, you must fight for it – despite the odds stacked up against you.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
That is a great question. Firstly, living with a disease where stress management is so crucial, my body tells me when I need to stop, and I listen to that. I am a mum, of now three children, two teens and a toddler. My toddler keeps me on my toes and I try to incorporate the easier side of the business tasks around her, singing while labelling soaps, letting her play with stickers while I’m labelling and helping me put packaged orders into a washing basket (yes I still use washing baskets). My two teens are quite self-sufficient, when they want to be of course – but I do still run around like a headless chicken after both of them often. I am a taxi, a maid, a cleaner, a mediator and I still manage to find time to explore the local op-shops and shower daily.
I have amazing family and friends who I can call on for support, but in all honesty, after being so close to losing my life and never truly grasping how important things are until they’re almost taken from you, my balance is not 50/50 and my kids will always come before my work.
