Life has thrown a lot of challenges at 30-year-old Bridget Scanlan. But she now believes they have prepared her for this moment - running her small business through the uncertainties thrown up by Covid-19.
Her story goes back to 2010 while studying for a conjoint business and arts degree through Massey University. A week after complaining of feeling unwell she received a shock diagnosis: She was suffering the life-altering condition type 1 diabetes.
Yet ultimately this setback had a silver lining, leading her to start a business today proving to be a Kiwi success story and making waves globally.
Since 2018 she has run KYT (Keeping You Together) from her home in Wellington, an enterprise through which she designs and manufactures stylish handbags configured to carry the "the trove" of medical equipment needed daily by type 1 diabetes sufferers.
Scanlan is one of an estimated 26,000 people in New Zealand who have type 1 diabetes, an auto-immune condition which according to Diabetes New Zealand is the result of the body not creating enough insulin to keep blood glucose levels in the normal range.
There is no cure and to stay alive sufferers need daily blood tests and insulin injections (allowing sugar to enter cells to produce energy).
While the medical equipment she needs is life-saving, carrying it around isn't all that elegant: "I have to carry a trove of medical equipment everywhere I go and I quickly realised what a mission it can be," she says.
"I had this cumbersome nylon case (bag) that went with me everywhere. I wanted a stylish bag more suited to my needs and definitely looked for it at the time, but nothing existed."
So Scanlan decided to turn the idea of that perfect bag into reality herself. She had the sewing skills thanks to having previously studied at NZ Fashion Tech, but her biggest challenge was the mental shift required to put down her tools and move away from her sewing machine.
"It's so easy to get tunnel vision," she says. "You presume if you make it, somebody will buy it. But, actually, selling the bags and making people aware and excited is a huge part of the job."
This was when the business side of her Massey degree (she graduated in 2013) came in handy.
"It gave me well-rounded knowledge of accounting, finances and marketing," she says.
"When you are running a small business you need competency in all of these. It also enabled me to go into the project with my eyes open, taught me there are peaks and troughs in business, that there will be highs and lows."
Today KYT has bags going into eight other countries including Japan and Belgium and has sold out of several production runs. But it hasn't always been smooth sailing.
"I'm currently working on three new bag designs - for both men and women - and we had hoped to have them available earlier this year. But the Covid pandemic meant we have had to push (the launch) out and we are now hoping to have them ready by the end of the year."
Scanlan believes her Massey degree with its joint business and arts focus has been key to helping her navigate KYT through the pandemic when many businesses are being hard-hit.
"It helped me develop resilience and to expect change," she says. "Covid is a good example (of change) and has impacted so many aspects of our lives and businesses."
With KYT going from strength to strength, Scanlan says she can look back at the twisting course of her career and study with pride.
"I think 20-year-old Bridget, who was kind of fumbling her way through university and wondering what was going to be out there for her, would be really, really proud that I am sitting here talking about it for other people to see."
To learn more about Massey University's business programmes go to: www.massey.ac.nz/study-business or for more information on KYT go to kytbags.com