Sophie Small’s dice with death brings new lease of life

City Lives – Bernie Ní Fhlatharta meets business woman and former model Sophie Small

Sophie Small doesn’t want to be defined by her illness but ironically enough, being on death’s door has given her a new lease of life.

She’s the first to admit she used to be besotted by fashion – well, she did model for ten years – and had a completely different outlook on life.

Right now, she couldn’t be happier with her life. She’s certainly never been busier but she believes that she now has a better work/life balance.

In fact, she is one of four women involved in a brand new project, The Look Academy, that helps women find their own work/life balance. The motto is ‘real women talking to real women’.

This academy runs workshops and master classes aimed at improving the lives of women, from the way they look and feel about themselves to how they can juggle busy lives.

Over six years ago, Sophie didn’t know the three women involved with her in The Look Academy nor her business partner, Michelle Bell in Smart HR Solutions, whom she describes as “my best friend”.

She met Michelle as a result of her illness when she attended a women’s cancer support event on Women’s Little Christmas six years ago. They hit it off immediately and over a year ago they went into business together.

“The Look Academy is made up of four strong vibrant women from very diverse backgrounds who were always being asked for advice in our respective areas.

“So we brainstormed and organised focus groups and after much thought and discussion, The Look Academy was conceived, bringing the elements of fitness, nutrition, lifestyle, fashion and styling together,” Sophie explains.

Her own Smart HR Solutions company was set up in January and already they boast a number of clients from the hospitality and entertainment business. But she is equally busy giving her time to charity and fundraising events.

Having been a former Miss Galway and Miss Ireland Photogenic in 2000, she is constantly being asked to judge beauty and best dressed competitions. She recently enjoyed judging a Strictly Come Dancing fundraising event for Salerno Secondary School.

Sophie had “an amazing year” when she was Miss Galway and describes Councillor Pádraig Conneely as “a dote” having been involved in the organising of the event at the time.

“That year stood to me many years later. It gave me confidence.”

She was a girl-about-town attending openings, events and being photographed for the daily papers. “At one stage I had Louis Walsh’s number and I was able to ring him for back stage passes to Westlife! It seems like so long ago now.”

She is thriving, something she struggled to visualise when she was getting chemo for her leukaemia. She was diagnosed in February 2008, just months after completing the New York City Marathon for Croí.

“I remember feeling tired all the time and I had a sore throat I couldn’t shake off and I honestly thought I had just overdone it with the marathon and everything.”

Next thing she knew she couldn’t walk to her car after a day’s work (she worked in the cosmetics department of Brown Thomas in Galway). She initially resisted going to hospital but there blood results showed she had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

“I don’t want to be defined by having had leukaemia but at the same time it is a pretty big deal, so I do want people to know that I got through it and many others do every single day.

“I am much more than someone who has had cancer. I am a daughter, a sister, a friend and a person who wants to be happy and get on with life,” she says.

She was a wife when she got cancer but her marriage has since broken up. She didn’t want to discuss the break-up but is the first to admit that getting cancer and surviving it has completely changed her.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.