"When you need me but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me but no longer need me, then I must go"

"I've been researching this subject for so many years, I can no longer just sit and watch the impending disasters unfold. Data doesn't lie. We are living longer, but we are getting sicker, earlier, and when I say we, I mean YOUR employees. Which means they are no longer an asset to your business, but a liability. Do you really want to wait for that to happen?"

Age: Old enough to see the problem and young enough to do something about it. No plans on retiring.

Background: GEC/Marconi - Consultancy Company for Entrepreneurs - Healthpreneur

Business Qualifications: Engineering, Project Management, Commercial Law

Health Qualifications: Bowen Therapist, Live Blood Analyst, HeartMath Coach, Stress & Wellbeing Assessment Provider

Achievements:

• Reversal of Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis
• First Woman to be Awarded the Sir Monty Finniston Award for Project Management
• First Woman to build a copy of Lotus 7 Kit Car
• Finalist for Young Woman Engineer of The Year Award

"This is a legacy business for me. There has to be dent where someone has been in life, and this is my mine"

Biography

Karen Simmons is the founder and Managing Director of Employee Health 360, a UK-based proactive healthcare company that blends holistic principles with integrative health assessments to support employee well-being. Karen's journey into health advocacy began with her own battle against disempowering health challenges, culminating in her planning her own funeral when she was just 29. With the help of a private Integrative Doctor, extensive personal exploration and a commitment to healing, her own health was restored, leaving her with a thirst for knowledge and a passion for remaining healthy. 

With a background in blue chip engineering and Project Management, Karen reflected on Ilya Prigogine’s Theory of Dissipative Structures and how complex systems respond to stress by either deteriorating or reorganising. Given the human body could be regarded as a collection of complex systems, she theorised that maybe “disease” symptoms were the body’s reorganised response to the complex system being put under load. Should this be the case, and the “load” was removed, could the body reorganise itself back to a state of wellness?

An opportunity to test her theory arose in 2019, when a family member was admitted into a Care Home as a result of suffering from Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS). Driven by curiosity and compassion for what looked like a hopeless situation, not unlike her own, Karen applied what she knew, with remarkable results. Her approach led to extraordinary improvements, including restored continence, speech and mobility, in an individual who had been severely disabled for years. This experience further reinforced Karen's belief in person-centered, integrative strategies for addressing chronic conditions. It also supported the argument for identifying a person moving from wellness to illness much earlier in their lifetime, and Employee Health 360 was born.