A Bishop’s Stortford mum of two who built a £1.5 million business while helping her award-winning young son overcome a serious illness is up for a prize of her own.
Su Sandhu, the founder and chief executive of SkyBlue Healthcare Associates, is one of three finalists in the running for the Daily Mail-sponsored Aphrodite prize at the everywoman Awards.
Her firm provides business insights and analytics consultancy services to the healthcare industry to improve patient health outcomes.
And Sandhu has been nominated for the accolade – awarded to a woman who founded her business whilst raising a child/children aged 12 or under – having succeeded after coming through the most challenging period of her life and career when son Aaron, then aged eight, suffered a stroke in 2016.
Aaron, who was with dad Jagmohan at a swimming pool when it happened, also suffered a bleed on the brain as a result of benign lesion bursting.
But, following surgery at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, weeks in a wheelchair and months of rehabilitation, he recovered well.
Aaron, now 14, went on to be named Child of Courage at last year’s Indies community awards.
“The business was obviously the least of my worries for a while, but my team rallied round and, with a lot of hard work, we managed to keep it all spinning,” Sandhu, 51, told the Daily Mail.
Sandhu, who lives in Stortford with Jagmohan, Aaron and 19-year-old daughter Simone, is now looking to scale up her successful business.
She founded SkyBlue Healthcare Associates when, working in the pharmaceutical industry, she noticed that few companies were gathering or analysing data properly to work out patient’s unmet needs.
“Women tend to underestimate their own abilities and think they need to know much more than they do before they can start a business,” she said.
“But you can learn as you go along. I’d have been more ambitious in the early years had I known that. My top tip is to believe in yourself.”
Sandhu will find out if she has won at the awards ceremony tomorrow night (Thursday December 8).
Celebrating 20 years in 2022, the everywoman Awards “shine a spotlight on the inspirational female founders whose creativity and resilience will help Britain weather the current economic storm”.
Open to any female business owner, whether they operate as a limited company, sole trader or in partnership with others, the awards celebrate the woman behind the business, her personal successes and achievements and how she individually inspires others.
