Over £5k has been raised in support of Thea Brook, founder and CEO of vegan ready meal brand The Brook, following her recent brain haemorrhage.
A GoFundMe page set up in Brook’s name by a trio of fmcg industry insiders last month had collected £5,764 in donations at the time of writing.
It was created by Nix & Kix CEO and co-founder Julia Kessler, along with two of Brook’s close friends – Bread & Jam founder Jason Gibb and Spare Snacks non-executive director Andrew Allen – to support Brook financially while she recovers.
As reported by The Grocer in October, The Brook closed its business at the end of 2022 following a “more-than-challenging” six months. At the time, Brook shared in a LinkedIn post that the business had “battled hard through one economic crisis after another” since its launch in 2019.
Since the business folded, Brook’s main income sources have been consulting and teaching cookery classes. But after suffering the brain haemorrhage and not being able to work, she had faced a “serious financial challenge at a time when her health needs to be the only concern”, said Kessler.
As a result, visitors to the GoFundMe page are being encouraged to donate a minimum of £20 for an event hosted by Brook in the future, called ‘Thea’s Power Hour’, to support Brook until she is well enough to work again.
Kessler told The Grocer Brook was “slowly on the mend but not able to work any time soon”.
Although she was “not close to Thea, I’ve known of her and met her at an event after she lost the business. I could feel her pain and sense of ownership and it really touched me back then.”
“When I learned she ended up in hospital and could have died from [the haemorrhage], I honestly got scared myself,” Kessler added.
“I kept on thinking about her husband and her family and how scared they must be, the pain she’s feeling and how afraid she must be not being able to contribute financially for a long time.
“We always talk about being a strong community, so I asked Andy and Jason what they thought about the idea to set up a GoFundMe page.
“I was so happy when she accepted the offer of help… knowing that we raised the equivalent of nearly four months helping to cover costs makes me super happy.”
A message written by Brook and posted to the page last week stated: “It’s very hard to find the words to tell you what that means to me. What you have done has made me feel so much love and so supported at the hardest point of my life.
“Thank you so much for caring in the way that you have. You have really made a difference to my life. I look forward to being able to thank you all in person sometime (hopefully) in the not-too-distant future.”
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