I have been collecting a list of helpful products and services I have discovered as a cancer patient again over the past couple of months.

Most of these are small Irish businesses who are working harder than ever to support their clients during this COVID-19 crisis so I thought now would be a great time to highlight them.

I hope these might help you if you are also on a cancer journey at the moment, or please share with someone you know who might need this. I know I’m working hard on staying positive right now.

Frozen food delivery services

Personally I think the nicest thing anyone can do for a cancer patient is to make or send them some homemade freezer meals. Freezer meals are just so helpful to have for tough chemo days, not just for the patient but their carer and family too.

Kayla’s Kitchen

Kayla’s Kitchen is a small Irish business with so much heart. Husband and wife team Emmett and Paula built their business after learning the art of batch cooking healthy meals for their daughter with Rett Syndrome.

Kayla’s Kitchen make and freeze delicious, healthy homemade meals and deliver nationwide using DPD. I’ve tried quite a lot of their range and loved everything. It’s real, tasty food made in small batches with wholesome and high quality ingredients.

They cater for Special Diets too and have strict COVID-19 hygiene precautions in place so you can order with peace of mind during this time we are in.

Browse the Kayla’s Kitchen menu online here.

The Butler’s Pantry

I discovered yesterday that gourmet food store The Butler’s Pantry are now delivering a selection of meal pack hampers nationwide too.

They have a Seven Day Meal Pack for €90.00, including 7 main courses, 4 side dishes, a cake and 6 sweet treats – what an amazing care package this would be for someone cocooning at the moment. Just look at that lasagna!

They also have this delightful Get Well Soon Hamper for €65, including 5 main courses, 4 side dishes and 2 freshly baked loaves. Such a lovely idea.

Prescriptions and pharmacy needs

Meaghers Pharmacy

Pharmacies around the nation are working harder than ever and Meaghers Pharmacy in Dublin is one that has really caught my eye during the COVID-19 crisis.

Managing Director Oonagh O’Hagan has been serving up an excellent health-focused commentary of the crisis on their Instagram Stories – well worth watching for sound, sensible advice during this time – and their whole team have been rolling up their sleeves to help their communities get through this crisis.

They have widened their services to include delivering prescriptions nationwide to people who are cocooning. I love the care, the real care, this team is demonstrating online for serving the communities they are in (nine locations in Dublin) with local deliveries and also extending their services to include posting prescriptions nationwide too.

If you are cocooning and need some help from Meaghers Pharmacy, call them on their dedicated helpline (01) 485 3098 or email them at help@meagherspharmacy.ie and they’ll do their best to help you with whatever you need. You can also browse their online shop for any other beauty/health/wellness needs you may have – check out all the brands they stock here.

Post-surgery/hospital

THEYA Healthcare post-surgery bras and briefs

I love this Irish business. Founder Ciara Donlon is an inspiring woman who made her dream of creating a special range of post-surgery wear come to life.

The THEYA product range has been so carefully designed and produced with the wearer in mind – the bras have no tags, wires or elastics and are made from an incredibly soft, bamboo-derived viscose so they offer a very comfortable experience post surgery.

The anti-bacterial properties of the fabric they use, together with its breathability and superior wicking capacity, also make all their garments ideal for supporting the body’s healing process after surgery.

The team at THEYA Healthcare have been a proud supporter of Happy Magazine since our launch.

Recently Melissa sent me a get well soon gift of a set of their Peony post-surgery bra and brief, so beautifully modelled here by Dublin breast cancer survivor Teresa Costello.

I can vouch that both the bra and brief are indeed incredibly soft and comfortable – the briefs make a smooth silhouette under tight clothing and I’ve even been sleeping in my bra as I like the feeling of light support that it gives me in bed.

I highly recommend them both if you have a surgery coming up – they are perfect under pyjamas for hospital wear, even immediately after breast surgery and give you that extra bit of decency (and emotional support) under your jammies when the doctors come round!

You can Shop By Need according to the type of surgery you are having on their website. Make sure you also sign up for their Good News Newsletter – they’re keeping their audience smiling through COVID-19 with positive news in their inboxes!

Indeora Healthy Magnesium Deodorant

If you’ve been reading Happy Magazine for awhile, you’ll know we’re also big fans of Indeora here – a small Irish business that has developed a healthy magnesium deodorant. Also a Husband and Wife team behind this business, Eimear and Pranshul are a dynamic and hard-working couple – Eimear running the business and Pranshul working as an Oncology Registrar at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

This gentle deodorant was specially developed by Eimear and Pranshul after Eimear’s own concerns about aerosol deodorants and breast cancer. It’s a light, fresh scented pump-spray deodorant that you can actually feel good about wearing. A hospital bag essential. An everyday essential! And a lovely gift for a cancer patient (or anyone who is health-conscious) in your life.

Available to order online at indeora.ie or Meaghers Pharmacy, mentioned above.

Hair loss

Roches

Anne Roche of Roches in Dublin is a Contributor here at Happy Magazine and she has also become a good friend of mine. I have been so impressed with how she has adapted her service offering during the COVID-19 crisis by offering virtual wig fittings and working hard on her online store.

You can browse and buy headwear, post-surgery bras, temporary prostheses and swimsuits online at roches.ie and Anne will get them posted out to you with next day (or as close to!) delivery.

You can also book in for a virtual wig consult during the COVID-19 crisis, so your wig doesn’t have to wait.

What I really love is that Anne’s video wig consults are done using whatever tech platform the client prefers – Zoom, Skype, Google Hangout, even Whatsapp Video Call if that’s easiest for you. Now that’s what I call customer service.

You’ll be asked to send photos first and photos of the wigs you like from the Roches online store. Then the virtual appointment will be scheduled via phone and during the consult, you’ll be shown how to measure your head correctly for sizing and fit the wigs chosen on a mannequin head before they are posted to you.

If there is something you need from Roches during these difficult times, start by calling Anne on (01) 492 6829 – whatever it is they can do to help, they will – they are a simply amazing team.

Check out some of the other articles Anne has written for us here on Happy Magazine here.

Browtique

If you follow Happy Magazine on Instragram, you’ll have seen I did a Live Chat with the lovely Olive from Browtique on Tuesday night. Olive and I became friends through Happy Magazine and I had the pleasure of meeting her in real life last summer while we were on holiday in West Cork.

Olive is an Eyebrow Microblading Consultant and I would go so far as to say she is one of only a very few, highly skilled super experts in Ireland. Olive is a Registered Nurse and over 80% of her clients are women who have lost their brows due to chemotherapy.

Follow Olive on Instagram for awhile – you won’t be sorry – her daily Coffee Talk on her Stories is a breath of fresh air from West Cork and her smile is infectious. You’ll also soon see how incredibly dedicated and passionate she is about all things eyebrows and her specialist craft of creating beautiful brows.

Olive can’t work through COVID-19 due to the social distancing rules but she is still online every day offering free digital brow designs, helpful tips for maintaining your brows at home and lots of sound information about eyebrow microblading. Find her at browtiquecork.com or on Instagram here.

Natural beauty

Dusty Gals by MooGoo

I’m finding getting up, making my bed and immediately getting dressed, even though we can’t go anywhere right now, a great way to start each day.

Putting on a little makeup too, definitely makes me feel a little better.

A few weeks ago I was all out of foundation and needed to buy some more. I have been using Couleur Caramel natural makeup for quite awhile now but I thought a change might be nice. I had been enjoying a MooGoo moisturiser I got free in a goody bag at the time, so this got me thinking I might try their makeup too.

Dusty Gals is the name of the makeup range from MooGoo.

The range is 100% natural and the products I’ve tried so far all perform very well – I’m very happy with them.

I bought the Earth Cream Tinted Moisturiser and apply a thin layer over the MooGoo Skin Milk Udder Cream.

I finish it off with some of the Mineral Foundation Powder and a slick of their Mineral Mascara and that’s my new five minute face.

Herbal Earth

Herbal Earth is another small and mighty Irish business, based in the west of Ireland. Owner Nancy is passionate about creating clean skincare for sensitive skin.

Nancy has created a range of unique and pure products free from essential oils and known irritants. The products have the natural aromas of the ingredients with absolutely nothing else added.

I was a lucky winner on their Instagram page recently and they sent me one of their lovely, 100% natural Moisturising Lip Balms. This is a lovely treat I keep in my handbag to keep my lips looking good during chemotherapy.

Find Herbal Earth online here.

Mood boosting products

NEOM Organics

I’ve been captivated by the luxury wellness products from NEOM Organics. I ordered myself one of their bath foams recently and it is a special treat that I know any woman would love during these particularly challenging times we are in.

NEOM are all about feeling good. The fragrances they use in their range are 100% natural with true wellbeing benefits: to help you sleep better, stress less, boost your energy or lift your mood.

They offer a range of products in different categories – Home, Bath & Body, Skincare and Natural Perfume.

If you’re looking for a special treat for yourself or someone you know going through cancer – I think anything from this beautiful product collection would be so appreciated.

Browse NEOM Organics online here.

Halo Essences

Halo Essences are another small and mighty Irish business well worth a shout out in this post. Liz creates joyful essential oil mist sprays perfect for your home, car or handbag as well as her own range of essential oil candles. 

Before my diagnosis last August, Liz very kindly set me a few bottles of her Halo Essence mist sprays to try out and they were absolutely gorgeous. They didn’t last long with me, let me tell you – I used one a lot at home in my kitchen to give my mood a little boost around the mid-afternoon slump and another I kept in the car for misting on the go. I loved smelling their fresh, energetic scents and they really do boost your mood.

These would be amazing in a care package for a cancer patient.

Shop the range of Halo Essences here.

 

That concludes my show reel for today! I hope you enjoyed this post and may find some of the links to products and services mentioned here helpful. Please share with anyone you know going through cancer.

By Happy Magazine Editor, Holly Kennedy.

Gifts disclosed where appropriate.

 

If you have a product or service you would like Happy Magazine to highlight, please email Holly at holly@happymgazine.ie