A MOTHER who launched a business after surviving cancer is now stocking London Zoo and an award-winning wedding venue.

KD Gift Shack offering gourmet vegan marshmallows, affordable funeral flowers and memorial candles is the Daily Echo’s Trader of the Week.

Kelly Jeff created her gift business after battling liver and kidney cancer during the Covid pandemic.

“I went through that for two years and when I got the all clear on Christmas Eve, it made me want to work from home,” said Kelly.

Her flexible schedule works well for her 13-year-old daughter who is home-schooled in Bournemouth and her seven-year-old son who has reduced school hours due to his autism.

“I have always painted and done arts and crafts, especially when I was having chemotherapy I liked to do things to take my mind off it.”

Vegan marshmallows (Image: Kelly Jeff)

Kelly began making jewellery and macramé, a technique of tying decorative knots, before moving onto vegan marshmallows.

She said: “It came up to Ramadan and some of my neighbours can’t eat gelatine because of the pork, so I started making vegan marshmallows for them.”

London Zoo is now stocking Kelly’s marshmallows along with award-winning venue, The Old Kent Barn Weddings.

Kelly said: “London Zoo have started buying my marshmallows for their gift shop and then The Old Barn in Kent, which is a really nice hotel and spa, also get my marshmallows for wedding favours and to put in their farm and gift shop.”

Kelly sells her products all over the country, travelling to various food festivals in her motorhome as well as local events.

She said the sugar and gluten free marshmallows can provide joy to those with dietary requirements.

Following a few deaths in her family, Kelly then used her creative skills to create affordable, artificial funeral flowers.

Funeral flowers (Image: Kelly Jeff)

“I make memorial candles with people’s loved ones faces or poems on.

“It’s nice going to people’s houses, even under sad circumstances, and doing something that makes them proud.

“It puts a smile on their face and takes the weight off their shoulders.”

Kelly’s products can be found on her Facebook page, KD Gift Shack.