Amanda grew up in a small country village in Suffolk, UK, with organic farming, and was fascinated in health. At age eighteen, unsure what to study at university, Amanda decided to follow the family building and engineering footsteps, and enrolled at London Southbank University and studied for a BSC honors degree in construction project management.

Graduating in 1996, Amanda went on to work and travel the world from London, Asia and to Australasia climbing the corporate career ladder working on some of the highest-profile government construction, engineering and mining projects.

During her thirties, Amanda was at the top of her career, but felt miserable, anxious and depressed, realizing that she had chosen the wrong career path. Feeling trapped, Amanda soldiered on, but started feeling more isolated, lonely, and was continuously run down and sick. Amanda began suffering from regular asthma attacks, and frequent trouble breathing causing increasing anxiety and onset of frequent panic attacks. 

A trip to the doctor’s office and numerous specialists later, had prescription pads filled out for steroid medications and anti-anxiety drugs. Digestion and gut health also become a problem, Amanda often skipped meals with the high-stress work commitments, and when she did eat, her stomach blew up like a balloon, and people would often ask if she was pregnant.