My name is Aliah and I set up Wellvitas as a Community Interest Company in 2023, driven by a lifetime of health issues of my own and being a carer since the age of 16 for parents with evolving chronic conditions, and ultimately stroke and dementia. Finding ways to manage conditions by non-invasive means was at the heart of our experiences while waiting to be seen by the public health service, or indeed after all NHS treatment pathways had been exhausted.
My experience as an unpaid carer has also made my very aware of the impact caregiving can result in physically and mentally. This really made me think about the health inequality that exists for unpaid carers as their quality of life decreases while they prioritise maintaining a quality of life for their loved ones.
In my own experience as a carer while being quite scientifically and technologically oriented, I was always driven to seek validated new areas of knowledge that could help my parents’ quality of life.
Seeing the impact of scientifically validated therapies such as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, and Photobiomodulation (PBM – or light therapies), among others, when no other options were left, be that for my mother’s rapid neurological decline after repeated strokes, her dangerously high blood pressure and blood sugar, her body-wide lymphodaema, or slowing down cognitive decline in my father after his dementia diagnosis and soothing his arthritic pain; motivated me to establish an evidence-based wellness social enterprise in which I could help address health poverty across communities using non-invasive therapies to improve quality of life in the face of a strained public health service.
Nonetheless, I am first and foremost a social entrepreneur with a professional background in commercial management; so even though I have amassed a wealth of background knowledge in all our therapies, I insist on seeking the guidance and support of field experts who have the credentials to deliver such therapies, and we aim to bring together both clinicians and complementary therapy and alternative therapy experts to offer true holistic treatment for whole health and wellbeing.
Wellvitas is at its very beginning of its journey with exciting plans for the future, but always guided by a core vision to make private non-invasive therapies and health management socially and financially equitable.