ABout gift wellness

Gift Wellness Ltd was founded in 2012 by Dr Zareen Roohi Ahmed who designed a new, innovative range of sanitary pads & pantyliners. The inspiration behind Zareen's desire to build a business based on kindness and compassion for women who suffered as a result of inferior products and women in crisis was Zareen's daughter Halimah, who tragically passed away in 2007. Halimah had just started university to study International relations and Third World Development, but just 6 weeks after starting her dream course, in her home town of Derby, she was abducted and murdered by a mental health patient. 

Almost immediately after the tragedy, Zareen, her husband and son established a charity to carry out the work that Halimah dreamed of doing. The charity delivered aid to South Sudan, Syria and other regions, but their flagship project was a school for orphaned and needy girls in Pakistan. It was after opening the school, on her journey home that Zareen happened to read an article about the plight of women in refugee camps. She read about how they were forced to tear strips off their clothing to fold and use as sanitary pads. At that moment, Zareen visualised herself giving pads to women like this... and the Gift Wellness story was born. 

18 months of research and development followed and the trading started in Januray 2013. In regard to the products, the idea was to provide women with an affordable alternative to the toxic sanitary protection products that were widely available, most of which were made with toxic materials and artificial fragrances that caused a wide range of feminine problems. Alongside building the Gift Wellness brand and making it as affordable and accessible as possible to all women, from day one, pads were donated to women in crisis. The aim was to provide sanitary pads to women in crisis situations, such as homeless women; women in refugee camps; women on low incomes and school girls. By February 2019 around 3,000,000 sanitary pads had already been donated!

After 6 years of trading thousands of women depend on our product range, making it a well established brand in Holland & Barrett and as well as hundreds of independents across the UK and Europe. 

Gift Wellness sanitary pads and daily pantyliners combine the power of nature and science to provide a breakthrough in sanitary protection. You’re probably thinking ‘sanitary pads’, that’s hardly rocket science? Well actually it is! We found a form of technology that is used by NASA in astronaut’s space suits; by airlines in air purification units and many other products. We applied this technology to sanitary pads. The amazing thing is that it comes from nature!

Our secret is a semi-precious mineral stone called Tourmaline which naturally emits negative ions and far infrared ray providing antibacterial effects. According to many scientists and naturopaths, this mineralis thought to help women during menstruation. Amongst the many benefits the monthly cycle becomes more regular, there is less discomfort, tension and pain, for a much calmer and happier experience during your period. 

The mineral is pulverized, made into a resin and used to create a thin layer in our pads, which are made in clinically clean and hygienic conditions.The benefits are incredible and women everywhere are telling us how Gift pads are helping them.

Gift pads are at least 6 times more absorbent than most ordinary brands. This makes them better for the environment, because around a third less product is used and thrown away. The friendly packaging & branding dispels taboos. It celebrates women, so they don’t have to hide them away or be embarrassed. And don’t forget – for every pack we sell we’re helping women in crisis.

As a new company, with no budget for marketing, we knew we were relying on the power of word of mouth to promote our product range. Sure enough, soon after we launched, women started using Gift pads and telling other women about them and the messages of encouragement were reaching us through social media, personal testimonials and reviews. Women were telling other women of their relief and excitement that there was finally a sanitary range that actually addressed their needs and performed beyond their expectations. I’ve met many of our customers at trade shows too where they tell me how much they love Gift pads because of their calming and healing affect.

But by listening to our customers' needs, we realise that there is much more we can do and we feel a responsibility to make Gift Wellness a place where women can find products that help them make healthier and more sustainable lifestyle choices. That's why, as well as developing the product range to include other types of sanitary wear such as incontinence pads, maternity pads and organic cotton tampons, we are also now developing an exciting range of natural soap bars to include shampoo and body wash bars. 

We’re so grateful to all our customers for giving us this opportunity to serve your feminine hygiene needs. Also, thanks to you, we can continue to help many thousands of women around the world to safeguard their dignity during times of crisis.