Support from the business community is really important to us here at the Sussex Cancer Fund. We have limited resources and our relationship with businesses can really help make our funds go further. One such example is the support we get from husband and wife team Niko and Jelena Goranovic. Both Jelena and Niko have been Business Ambassadors for us for some time and use their standing in the Business Community to help and support us.
Here’s a little bit about Jelena & Niko
Dr Jelena Goranovic – Jelena is a doctor of psychology working in the area of workplace wellbeing and burnout prevention. As a co-founder and Programme Director of Sussex Wellbeing Company, she draws on her extensive academic expertise to help organisations reduce workplace stress and create a wellbeing culture where employees can thrive and perform to the best of their ability. Jelena tailors and evaluates the effectiveness of all wellbeing and team development programmes, providing clients from a wide range of industries with a clear insight into their return on investment.
Niko Goranovic – Niko is an expert in business development and communication, as well as a qualified trainer and coach specialising in business and performance coaching. He has extensive experience of working in the corporate sector, having held several senior executive and board-level positions in international banks. Over the recent years he has moved on to the role of business development consultant and mentor, working with a variety of startups and established businesses in the UK and abroad. As the co-founder and Business Development Director of Sussex Wellbeing Company Niko helps client organisations develop and implement effective team development strategies for sustained long-term growth and productivity.
Why Jelena & Niko chose to support the Sussex Cancer Fund
We asked Jelena why they have chosen to support us. Jelena commented “As for the reasons we support SCF, we have very personal reasons – Niko’s dad (and my much-loved father-in-law) died from colon cancer at the age of 64, and we also lost several family members and friends to different types of cancer, most recently a close school friend of mine who died from lymphoma at the age of 44, leaving a five-year-old daughter to grow up without a dad. We chose SCF specifically because it’s a local charity and I’m particularly impressed by extremely low overheads you have – this is so rare in an era when charities are such big money-making businesses. Also, the fact that you invest not just in research (which is so important) but also in different things that improve the quality of life of patients and their families, the small things that can make such a big difference during an awfully stressful time. “
Hove Stress Busters
In addition to their business, Niko and Jelena are founders of a community programme Hove Stress Busters. This is a project involving many therapists from a range of disciplines who have come together to form a group to combat stress. As well as running workshops and talks on a range of relaxation and therapeutic techniques, they hold taster evenings where you can try a couple of mini-workshops to see if these therapies work for you.
What do Hove Stress Busters provide? “From talks and demonstrations of a variety of wellbeing approaches giving you practical tools to reduce your stress level, to a range of classes, workshops and courses carefully selected based on their effectiveness and affordability, Brighton & Hove StressBusters is a community programme dedicated to wellbeing and stress management.
Whether you are interested in learning about different ways to combat stress or you are just looking for a stress-free way to spend an evening once per month with some like-minded people enjoying coffee, biscuits and stimulating discussion, then Brighton & Hove StressBusters is the community for you.”
How do Hove Stress Busters Help the Sussex Cancer Fund?
We would like to thank the Hove Stress Busters Group who very generously been offering free therapy sessions as prizes for their fund-raising raffle, and, of course, the generous donations from all Hove StressBusters event attendees who participated in the monthly raffle draws.
In addition, two Hove Stress Buster practitioners helped run sessions at the Rebel Boob retreat weekend. Rebel Boob is a creative performance centred around Breast Cancer. It has been devised using real-life experience from patients. As a thank you to the patients that took part, Angela El-Zeind the Director organised a retreat weekend, where the Hove Stress Buster practitioners donated their time for free.
These included:-
Chakradance with Lesley Hughes – This was a 60-minute session including an opening meditation, 30-minute chakradance through all 7 chakras, mandala drawing following the dance and a closing meditation.
Healing through Creativity with Philippa Apey – Who held a 90-minute session which explored the concept of creativity (whatever this may mean to you) and how it can aid the healing process. It focused on resilience and self-care and involved art-based fun, discussions, sharing of experiences, practical stress-management techniques and a guided visualisation exercise.
By supporting us at their events not only do they help raise funds to enable us to help more cancer patients in Sussex, but they also help raise awareness of the work we do. Thank you to Jelena & Niko and to all the Hove Stress Buster attendees and Practitioners.
