Diabetes led to a new business & high-speed fibre to support it.
Thirteen years ago Bridget Scanlan was a healthy 20-year-old university student preparing for her exams – but her life took a sudden dramatic turn through an unexpected health diagnosis.
“I couldn’t see more than a metre away; it was bewildering,” she says today of that morning 13 years ago. Blood tests diagnosed Scanlan with type 1 diabetes; overnight she was confronted with the prospect of managing a chronic condition which, among other measures, required her to regularly self-administer life-saving injections of insulin.
While her blurred vision was temporary, the diagnosis opened her eyes to new possibilities – helping her begin and grow (with the help of Chorus’s fast-fibre internet) a business popular in countries round the world.
This silver lining emerged for the Wellington woman when, discovering a lack of suitable ways to carry the plethora of equipment and supplies she needed to have with her to deal with her diabetes every day, she set about to design her own.
The upshot was a range of contemporary and fashionable diabetic bags marketed through KYT Bags (Keeping You Together), the first runs of which were so popular they sold out in seven countries after launching in 2018.
Scanlan is releasing three new designs this month and is targeting an even wider international reach, a move which she says will be more seamless through the business fibre internet connection she has powered by the Chorus network.
Because she operates KYT outside of office hours around a full-time day job in a government-based HR role, Scanlan needs a service plan that comes with business fibre so not a moment of her time is wasted.
“We are completely digital and, put simply, we wouldn’t have a business without the capabilities and global connectivity that strong, reliable internet offers,” she says. “Fibre has been our safety net in ensuring the big business moments can run without a hitch.”
Although Scanlan admits to “nerves” when first launching the business, it was nothing compared to the steep learning curve of life with diabetes. Overnight her world turned upside down when she awoke not able to see very well: “Everything was blurred, I was thirsty, hungry and tired. I know now that all of these things, as a package, was diabetes going on in the background.
“At the time I was getting ready to sit my exams (she was doing a business degree at Massey University in Wellington) and thought it might be the stress associated with that.”
But the reality of diabetes meant, within hours, a team of specialists were teaching her how to inject herself; her life living with diabetes had begun.
Today she has found empowerment from learning to live with diabetes but says at the beginning it “was a lot to come to terms with. I was a young, healthy female who got diabetes through bad luck; I didn’t even know what it was. (But) it’s 24/7 and it doesn’t matter whether it’s Christmas or your birthday, you’ve still got to deal with it.”
It’s this empowerment she hopes to inspire within others. Scanlan describes her bag designs as feel-good, do-good bags purpose-built for the everyday needs of diabetics; they help ease not only their day-to-day treatment, but the emotional burden of living with the condition, while a donation from every bag sold helps charities get crucial supplies to diabetics in need.
Insulin, wearable devices, blood sugar meters and emergency glucose are among the items diabetics need on hand. “It can be scary if you’re out and caught without some of these things. The bags are designed to carry the lot so you can feel safe.”
Scanlan worked on the early prototypes herself, all of which were based on feedback from hundreds of people with diabetes she interviewed in New Zealand and overseas (worldwide 422 million are said to have diabetes; in New Zealand it is estimated there are 250,000 diabetics of which up to 20,000 have type 1).
Her latest designs have been produced through a global network; sampled in New York, ethically crafted in China with premium leather sourced from Italy.
It is this global aspect which makes fibre internet connectivity so crucial to her business. “Our model is fully dependent on strong internet capabilities connecting us with our design and production partners around the globe.
“It has enabled us to embrace all the incredible modern tools available to e-commerce businesses (website building, social platform marketing, research, Zoom chats and WeChat threads among them) all from our lounge HQ in Pōneke,” Scanlan says. “It’s also important now that we are seeking to expand our global reach.
“Prior to fibre we experienced issues like glitches in video calls and connections that would drop from room-to-room - let alone withstanding high-pressure moments like live Facebook interviews.
“Sharp internet connections make that a whole lot simpler to achieve and since switching to fibre we have noticed a big improvement in connectivity; it’s been much crisper.”
Dean Pointon, head of business at Chorus, says KYT’s model shows why fibre works for New Zealand businesses, particularly those looking to market off-shore.
“Although they are a small business, KYT work with a lot of large files like high-res photos and images from product photo shoots so they need the speed, consistency and reliability that fibre brings.”
Pointon says fibre supports entrepreneurship and this reliable, high-speed connectivity ensures a consistency of service for Scanlan’s customers.
For more information about business fibre go to: www.chorus.co.nz/business-fibre. There’s a lot that contributes to broadband speeds experienced at an address. Learn more in the broadband speed and performance section, visit www.chorus.co.nz/get-better-internet.