From Anxious New Mum to Mamamia: Our Story, and How I Found My Voice

From Mums of the Shire to Mamamia: Reflecting on How Far We Have Come

This week our story landed on Mamamia. A national platform read by hundreds of thousands of Australian women.

I have to be honest, I have spent the last few days a little quiet, a little teary, just taking it all in.

Because if you had told the version of me from a few years ago, the one curled up with worry after yet another diagnosis, that one day I would be sharing our family's story on a stage like this, I never would have believed you.

So today I want to do something a bit different. Instead of talking products or sun safety, I want to reflect on the journey. The slow, scary, beautiful road that brought us here.

It started with a whole lot of fear

When this all began, I was not a confident business owner. I was an anxious new mum trying to make sense of a melanoma diagnosis while raising little ones.

For a long time, fear was steering. I worried about my kids in the sun. I worried about my own skin checks and then the scans began. I worried that I was not doing enough. Starting a brand felt like the bravest and most terrifying thing all at once, because it meant turning the hardest chapter of my life into something I would have to talk about, out loud, over and over.

I did it anyway. Not because I felt ready, but because I could not sit with the fear and do nothing.

Mums of the Shire: where I first said it out loud

The very first time our story was shared publicly was through 'Mums of the Shire', right here in our own local Sutherland Shire community.

It might sound small, but to me it was enormous. It was the first time I let people in. The first time I told the truth about the diagnosis, the surgeries, and why Guy and I had poured ourselves into building something to protect other families.

The response from local mums reminded me exactly why I started. So many women reached out about their own skin checks, their own scares, their own little ones. That was the moment I realised our story was not just mine to carry. It could actually help.

The Leader: seeing our story in print

Then came 'The Leader', our local paper.

Seeing our journey in print and online, in their publication was surreal. There is something about holding a real newspaper, your face and your family and your why right there on the page, that makes it all feel real in a way a screen never quite does.

That feature stretched our reach beyond our immediate circle and into the wider community. More families learned about sun safety. More people heard that melanoma does not only happen to other people. It happened to me, a young mum, from a spot I had brushed off as nothing.

And now, Mamamia

And then this. Mamamia.

I poured my whole heart into this piece. It is the most honest I have ever been about the part no one really talks about, the patch on my ear I assumed was just pregnancy pigmentation, and how wrong I turned out to be.

If you would like to read it, you can find the full story here: https://www.mamamia.com.au/melanoma-pregnancy-pigmentation/

To have our story held by a platform this big, in a community of women who truly understand, is a moment I will treasure forever.

What this journey has actually taught me

Here is the thing no one tells you when you start a little business from your kitchen table.

You do not just learn how to run a brand. You learn how to back yourself.

Over these few years I have taught myself more than I ever thought I could. How to build and rebuild a website. How to find the right words. How to send the email I was scared to send and pitch the story I was terrified to tell. Every single part of this business has stretched me in ways I did not see coming.

But the biggest growth has not been the skills. It has been the shift inside me. I went from anxiety riddled and unsure to a woman who can stand in her story and use it for good. That did not happen overnight. It happened one brave step at a time, one feature at a time, one honest conversation at a time.

The business gave me that. It gave me a reason to keep showing up, even on the days the fear tried to talk me out of it.

To the woman who is scared to share her story

If you are sitting on something hard, a diagnosis, a scare, a story you think is too messy or too painful to share, I want you to hear this.

Your story matters. Sharing it does not just help you heal. It might be the exact thing that nudges another mum to finally book the skin check she has been putting off. It might save a life. Mine could have ended very differently, and that is why I will keep telling it, as loudly as I can.

With a grateful heart

To everyone who has followed along, bought a hat, or sunnies, shared a post, or sent me a message about your own journey, thank you. You are part of this story too.

From a quiet feature in our local mums community, to the Leader, to Mamamia, this has been the most unexpected and meaningful adventure. And honestly, I feel like we are only just getting started.

Here is to protecting our families, sharing our stories, and never letting fear have the final word.

With love, Kara Founder of Ombra & Sole