Kathy started her career in hospitality and catering aged just 17 and later, as a single parent worked her way through university and qualified to become a secondary school Maths teacher, to enable her to dedicate more school holiday time to her daughter.
Following the loss of her husband, she had to leave her job to take over his existing gift shop business but it wasn’t for her and she transformed it into the first Zero Waste shop in the New Forest National Park in 2018.
Since the opening she has expanded into the next door premises with a zero wast coffee shop and acts as a local meeting hub for the community.
She also mentors other ZW shop owners in their journeys to setting up and is an ambassador for the Surfers Against Sewage movement of plastic free towns.