A healthy career
For Heather, IBS has gone from a debilitating ailment to a challenge to be overcome, to an entrepreneurial opportunity. Although she had never intended to make a career out of her expertise, she's found a healthy market for the information and advice she provides. With her husband Will, Heather heads up Heather & Company, LLC, a company that seeks to provide information and services to IBS sufferers. Her books have received rave reviews from patients and their doctors, and her website receives more than 1.8 million visits per year. She's received accolades from health and diet organizations, and Heather was nominated for a “Woman of Strength Award” by Oxygen.com.

Heather has also found her work accepted and endorsed by many in the medical profession. “I was worried at first about how doctors would respond,” Heather admits. But after distributing information at a conference for gastrointestinal specialists, her perspective changed. Many doctors, she's found, are just as frustrated as their patients with the difficulties in treating IBS. “They were ecstatic to have the information,” Heather recalls. One former IBS sufferer, a doctor in Calgary , has had such success with Heather's guidelines that he's conducting a study on the effectiveness of her dietary and lifestyle advice.

But for Heather, the true sign of her success is the response she gets from her readers. Her site documents the testimonials she's received from IBS patients who've finally found relief because of her work. It's a heart-warming experience for a woman who thought for years that she suffered alone.