15 woman this month | January 2012 | role of safety and survival instructor at the same time. “Gulf Air made me who I am today”, says Gaynor. “It taught me management skills, which I still use today in my own business. It shaped the way I am now able to deal with all sorts of people from all walks of life”. During her time at Gulf Air she came in to contact with the full spectrum of humankind. “One day I would be serving a Royal and the next I would be interacting with a labourer who earned about 50BD a month for hours of arduous work”, she remembers. This experience proved entirely invaluable. “Now, dealing with large retail stores and distributors with C&G Medicare Ltd., I need the best sort of negotiating skills. Living in Bahrain, dealing with tricky customers and haggling in the souk gave me a great head start!” Unfortunately for Gaynor, although her career in Bahrain had been looking to bear some exciting fruit, the region hit troubled times and her situation changed. Her time in the Middle East was interrupted by the first Gulf War, during which she helped evacuate passengers to safer, nearby countries. “After the Gulf War things were very difficult for everyone in Bahrain,” says Gaynor, “Bahrain changed, leaving many local people jobless. Gulf Air were encouraging Bahrainis to apply for jobs within the airline. All the expatriates holding teaching positions in the safety school were made redundant.” After a stint as an English teacher for the British Council, Gaynor realised that her career in the Gulf was drawing to a close. Although she didn’t immediately move back to the UK, she still made regular trips back to the place of her roots. It was during one of these visits back that she became inspired to embark on the most important venture of her life. “My mother Carole had started having problems with incontinence around the age of 40. At 45 the incontinence was such an issue she had the TVT operation (a procedure to help women with stress incontinence). Although this worked on a temporary basis, a few years later the symptoms returned”, she explains. Gaynor, witnessing her mother’s embarrassment, set about trying to find a solution. Millions of women experience incontinence, largely due to insufficient strength of their pelvic floor muscles. Some may lose a few drops of urine while running or coughing, while others may feel a strong, sudden urge to urinate just before losing a large amount. Many women experience both upsetting symptoms. Incontinence can range from slightly bothersome to totally demoralising and, for many women, the risk of public embarrassment stops them enjoying many activities and impacts on their quality of life. Additionally urine loss can also occur during sex and cause tremendous emotional distress. As incontinence isn’t a life threatening condition, very little money is spent on research. The most common solution offered for incontinence is pads, which only hide the problem but never solve it. Gaynor and Carole were looking for a more permanent solution. Carole and Gaynor began brainstorming. During one of their discussions about the intricacies of the condition, Carole mentioned that the problem was not so bad when she was menstruating. After some research they discovered that when Carole wore a tampon it went some way to support the urethra and the exerted pressure was able to gently suppress the loss of urine, while not interfering with the normal flow. Knowing the dangers of using a tampon outside the recommended period they decided to look for a re-usable tampon. There was nothing available, and so they made their first working prototype in 1998. Testing the design, “she started doing star jumps in the middle of the kitchen,'’ says Gaynor, “and though she had a full bladder, she didn't leak at all. ‘It works, it works!’ she yelled. She wore it every day after that, and started to go out again without the slightest leak.” Gaynor financed her business with savings earned with Gulf Air. The product they developed grew from strength to strength. What started as a daughter’s attempt to help her mother with an embarrassing condition has now won many international awards [DASH] and has transformed the lives of thousands of others who suffer from incontinence and pelvic floor weakness. Gaynor works on a personal level with her distributors, ensuring that the right information and advertising is given. She supports them in promotions and raising awareness about the incontinence issue and has been commended by her government for the amazing work she is doing. For more information visit www.incostess.com
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