"Even though I couldn’t leave the house I put a rail up and I got some neon lights and I made my living room into a studio and we filmed ‘Fashion Fridays’ every week."
For Anita Ross, March was supposed to have been a celebration. She was due to finish the last of her gruelling chemotherapy sessions and aimed to open a new, larger, outlet in Belfast’s Victoria Square for her clothing business, My Sister’s Closet.
The 36-year-old, who co-owns the business with her 31-year-old sister Donna, was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma in September 2019.
She shared the highs and lows of her cancer journey on her business’s social media. And during lockdown, she raised more than £80,000 for Leukaemia & Lymphoma NI by auctioning a new Chanel handbag.
Although she finished her last chemotherapy session on March 13, she subsequently had to go into isolation. Then lockdown put a temporary halt on plans for the new store.
“We’d only just opened it the Thursday before my last chemotherapy on the Friday,” she said.
“We had planned events in store for that weekend. I wouldn’t have been there obviously because I would have been sick, but the events were to celebrate the end of what I had been through and to celebrate the new, larger store in Victoria Square."
Born and raised in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, the sisters were involved in their parents’ shop, The Boudoir, at the Linen Green shopping complex while they were in university.
My Sister’s Closet was set up five years ago. Selling a mixture of their own brand clothes and items from other brands, the business also sells to different boutiques.
From an initial store in the Linen Green, the sisters later set up a base in Belfast and last year opened a temporary ‘pop-up’ store in Dublin.
Despite her illness, Ms Ross said she was keen to continue working.
“I did work the whole way through,” she said.
“Even down to the days when I had chemotherapy it was a big deal to choose what I was going to wear and every one was an outfit, it was something put together. It was something to celebrate because it was one less chemo that I had to do.
“If I was busy I still felt that I had control of my own life. I enjoyed doing that and you got so much support from people.
“Lockdown has been difficult but it’s been difficult for everyone."
Although she had to self-isolate during the pandemic, Ms Ross still took part in weekly filming for the business’s social media channels.
“Even though I couldn’t leave the house I put a rail up and I got some neon lights and I made my living room into a studio and we filmed ‘Fashion Fridays’ every week,” she said.
“We said we understood that people’s priorities were changing and there was no requirement for anyone to buy but we thought that it would provide a distraction and show new pieces that we had or show how it was styled or how I would wear it with the shoes that I would have in my wardrobe.”
She said several women had contacted her online for advice about their own health during lockdown.
“During Covid there were a lot of messages to the Instagram page particularly from women who had said: ‘I found a lump on my neck…and I remember seeing your post. What other symptoms did you have? I don’t want to go to the doctor because I am afraid that I’m wasting the doctor’s time.’
“One lady did come back and said she did have to have a biopsy but it wasn’t lymphoma. She said she wouldn’t have gone otherwise. If something good can come out of a bad situation then at least it’s that.”
Ms Ross said she is a passionate advocate for 'bricks and mortar' shops - "our store ethos was always mothers and daughters who shopped together”. However, her illness prompted the business to look at pop-up boutiques.
And with their Belfast store and the Dublin pop-up forced to close during lockdown, Ms Ross said the business was fortunate to see online sales double.
“I think that was because from our blog pages we felt we had to provide something a wee bit more than just talking about fashion," she said.
"We did everything from cocktail making to speech and drama lessons for people with kids."
With the shop at Victoria Square now open again, Ms Ross said the business has had to adopt stringent precautions, including limiting the number of customers, a one-way system and a foot-operated hand sanitiser machine.
Only one fitting room is open and every garment tried on by a customer is steamed and quarantined for 24 hours before going back on the rack.
Despite the push for online sales, she believes that many people still want to visit stores.
“I still feel it’s about an experience which you don’t get online," she said. "Going shopping is about memories and experiences.”
