"IT ALL STARTED ON A BOAT HOUSE ON THE THAMES…"

SO, did I really discover kombucha while visiting friends on their rickety Victorian boathouse moored by the Thames near Teddington, or is that just wishful marketing hype…

I began visiting ‘Velma’ in 2002, a year after selling my publishing business I started at school. I harboured a deep desire to do something more meaningful and my soul searching had led me to Peter and Linda’s boathouse and their crystal dowsing ‘Soul Path’ program.

Built in 1884 and Grade II listed, Velma - named after the family dog of Dr John Langdon Down (1828-96), who discovered Down’s Syndrome in 1866 and resided at Velma towards the end of his life - nestles in a third of an acre on London’s riverside.

Peter and Linda sold Velma in 2005 for £500K and bought a chateau in France to live and host new age retreats. Broke, I asked for £5000 in exchange for writing off my £30k life savings I’d loaned them to get ‘Boathouse Kombucha’ off the ground. Instead they gave me the hollowed out husk of the business and I turned to 0% interest credit cards to keep going.

What at the time felt like the ultimate betrayal would, in time, morph into the greatest gift; I’d gone to Velma in search of purpose and…it was staring me back in the face and kicking the back of my throat with every sip of the weird tea they brewed in their rickety kitchen!

True, it would take years of sweat and struggle to build the brand up organically, reinvesting every penny and subsisting on benefits and friends’ sofas, but the journey and lessons learned along the way were invaluable.

Today I’m blessed to own the UK’s most trusted and respected kombucha label outright and getting used to living again free of a poverty mindset - real cash in the bank instead of overdrafts!

Forgiveness is the greatest healer. I bear no malice towards my former friends though I often wonder if they know that Velma was sold again in 2018…for a princely £2 million! Their châteaux in France by comparison declined in value by 40 per cent between 2007-15 and a further 25 per cent since lockdowns began, and large houses are notoriously costly to heat and maintain…

Maybe they too will one day come to see that any hardship they may have to suffer is in fact a valuable learning curve from which to grow and prosper.