So many stories I have heard over the last 20+ years, of how people began working in the natural healthcare industry because of a health crisis they experienced. For me it was no different.

I was born with a hereditary kidney disease that had already taken a mighty toll on my family. Taking both my elder brother & two uncles to kidney failure. So in many ways my life was always going to be shaped in large part by this condition….

I grew up in rural Aotearoa New Zealand in a modest 3 bedroom weatherboard home that looked out onto the three central North Island maunga; Ruapehu, Ngarahoue and Tongariro in National Park village….

Horopito (Pseudowintera colorata) is a plant that gives us clues to what it is good for by observing its natural habitat. This native plant is endemic to New Zealand and is found mostly in places where the climate is cold and damp. It can often be found growing with a type of dark fungus growing over it…..