Why I Started Building Balancé Haus

Two years ago, I remember so vividly getting up to go to my final chemotherapy.

It was the milestone I had been counting down to since diagnosis, since I started. Ringing the bell filled me with joy, but underneath the surface I was carrying so much more. In my video diary that day, I wrote, “I feel a lot of emotions since finishing and it comes from a deep sense of feeling overwhelmed but finally my life that’s been on pause I can press play again.”

I also remember thinking, “I want to get better, and I want it now. Fast.”

But the reality was that I had a marathon ahead of me, one that I am still figuring out and one that has had a lot of scenic routes.

At the time, I wanted so badly to get back to normal day to day activities, but it was so far from normal. So much had changed, and I was trying to make sense of what recovery even meant when treatment had ended but the impact of it all was still very much there.

In my own journey, I found myself searching for community based rehabilitation, peer support programs that had practical skills to take away from each meeting, and a digital platform with self paced resources beyond the scope of the many brochures I was given at diagnosis.

I could not find what I was looking for.

It was in those moments of waiting, of wanting to reach some kind of recovered finish line, I started to realise there was a gap. It was a gap in evidence based community support for young people in their 20s and 30s navigating how to live well after cancer, to run the marathon for the long term, and to access support, individual and group programs that were built with them in mind.

Often, the groups offered in more traditional settings still have not adapted for younger people. Not always in obvious ways, but in the quieter ways that matter, in how support is delivered, in what is talked about, in what life stage is assumed, and in what people are carrying as they try to rebuild life, identity, work, relationships, and a sense of self.

What I was noticing was not only personal, but something I could also see through my professional lens as an occupational therapist. Through my work, I have seen how much people need support that is practical, evidence based, and grounded in the realities of everyday life, support that helps people navigate not only health, but identity, routine, confidence, participation, and what it means to live well after something life changing.

So quietly, slowly, and step by step, I started building the vision for Balancé Haus, with our first stream focused on oncology. It has grown from both my lived experience and my professional experience as an Occupational Therapist, and through that dual lens I have come to understand how much people need support that meets them where they are and fits within the realities of daily life.

When I reflect on what I was searching for during my own experience, I realise it was never just information. I was looking for understanding, for support that helped me make sense of what had happened, and for something that could meet me where I was while helping me find my way toward what came next.

Balancé Haus is still taking shape, and I am grateful for every conversation and connection that helps guide what it can become, because something like this begins with community. If this resonates with your experience, whether personally or professionally, I would love to connect.