Kellie Johnson has spent over two thirds of her life in endometriosis pain.
From the moment she got her first period at the age of 12, she was in agony every month.
To help with the cramps, she used heat packs.
“I became known as the ‘heat pack girl,'” she tells Woman’s Day.
“The pain was so severe, it would make me sick.”
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Finally, at age 24 – after passing out in the bathroom at a party from excruciating period pain – she was diagnosed with endometriosis.
Kellie, 40, from Bateau Bay, NSW, was put on the hormonal contraceptive pill to help manage her symptoms, but she still needed “every type of pain management I could get my hands on.”
None of the ones she used hit the mark and the heat packs didn’t work either.
“Endometriosis can mean the pain radiates through your whole torso, to your back and down your legs,” she explains.
“The pain rarely stays in the front. I had to use one on my belly and one on my back.”
“They were tricky to hold in place too. I had to physically hold it in one spot, so I couldn’t move around when I was using them.”
“I’d often get burn marks too,” she recalls.
“Plus most of them smelt funny.”
Kellie realised she needed a product that didn’t exist so decided to make her own.
“I got myself a second-hand sewing machine and taught myself to sew!” she says.
She made a prototype of the type of heat pack she wanted, filling it with rice.
“It made me feel emotional because it solved so many of the issues I had,” she says.
“I thought there had to be something in this.”
QUALITY OF LIFE
Kellie, mum to one-year-old Lola, found a manufacturer, and after a year of planning, Kosi was launched in August 2023.
It’s a wearable, hands-free heat pack filled with flaxseeds, which has anti-analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.
There’s also a heat pack that can be work on your shoulders which helps pain in the neck, shoulders and upper back area.
A year on from the launch of Kosi, Kellie, who is on maternity leave from her sales director role, has sold nearly 3,000 heat packs.
She’s also had countless conversations with people she’s helped including those who have other stomach, back or post-operative pain.
“It’s just such a nice feeling when you know you’re really making a difference to someone’s quality of life,” she says.
“I don’t want women to be embarrassed to say ‘I’ve got pain.'”
“So many women DM me their stories, or tell me how Kosi has helped them. I feel like I’m on that journey with them.”
Kosi donates $1 from every heat pack sold to Endometriosis Australia. For 10% off Kosi, use the code WDAY10.
