A Worthing mum has bagged an award for her hard work in setting up a charity while running her own business.
Kayla Shepherd was the deserving recipient of the Business Mum of the Year award at the 2022 virtual Women’s Business Club Awards.
Kayla is a mum-of-one who set up charity Andy’s Angels in 2021 in memory of her late husband, Andy, who died suddenly in 2017.
She launched it after supporting her daughter, Millie throughout the grieving process and realising there wasn’t much support for children like her who were grieving a loss.
With the help of lived grief experienced volunteers, the two of them host grief play cafes for families to act as a safe space for children and families who are going through their own journeys of grief.
Alongside this, she runs training company Safety Mode Limited, which offers first aid and safety training for a range of industries.
There were 20 categories throughout the awards and 18 nominees from across the UK in Kayla’s category alone.
Kayla got the award for her hard work in both of her ventures and how, despite grieving herself, she has been able to build success for both her family and others in similar positions.
Kayla said: ‘It’s amazing to be recognised in such a way and to have come first against so many people across the country means even more. I work hard to support not only my family, but to enable people to have a safe space to come when they need a friend or someone who is in a similar situation to talk to and that is the driving force behind everything I do.’
The charity has just launched an afternoon Grief Play Café alongside the morning session due to the success and uptake of the initial sessions.
She said: ‘The morning sessions went so well that we thought it’d only be right to add more sessions so that we can help even more families. We’ve got so much planned throughout the year, from pamper and prosecco nights to days out at the races and more. It’s so rewarding being able to do so much for people who are going through what we went through, and I can’t wait to see where Andy’s Angels will go from here.’
You can buy tickets for the pamper and prosecco night via the Andy’s Angels website.
