Hi, I'm Antony.

It's been a very difficult couple of years, my wife and I had a baby and ten months later she fell ill with stage four of a rare and aggressive form of cancer. I immediately took the decision to take some time off work to look after her and take the lead in raising our beautiful son as we knew she would need a long operation to remove the cancer (as well as her nose, top jaw, most of her teeth and lots of tissue from within her face and sinuses - the operation took 22 hours on 23rd December 2024!) followed by both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Suffice to say 2025 was a hell of a stressful and challenging year and was capped off by a 14 hour facial reconstruction operation on 18th December from which she is now recovering.

All of this took a huge mental, physical and financial toll on our family. In December, I took a decision to leave my former employer of 6 years to start my own headhunting and coaching business. I'd never really seen myself as an entrepreneur but knew that being my own boss would allow me more work/life balance and time at home with my wife as she continues her recovery.

I'm not new to the executive search space, having worked in senior recruitment since 2005 and I've done plenty of informal coaching both in terms of leadership and career counselling. However, the start up costs of my business have outstripped what I was expecting and I am now looking to raise funds for some essential business costs. These include:

Unfortunately, the cost of a year off work added to my wife's maternity leave, immediately followed by sick leave has eaten up all our savings so I am very much hoping crowd sourcing through this platform can help me get my career back on track and more importantly, help my family get our lives back as I build a thriving business.

The good news by the way is that my wife is now cancer free and very much enjoying spending time with our now two-year-old son.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. We really do appreciate your help.