By Beth Gallagher, University Relations. This is an excerpt from an article originally published on University of Waterloo Magazine.
It takes a particular kind of resilience to pitch an idea for a startup to a radiologist—while you’re in hospital waiting for your cancer treatment.
That’s exactly what Rachel Bartholomew (MBET ’14) did. Today she is the founder of Hyivy Health, a startup that is developing a rehabilitation system – a connected vaginal wand, a patient app and a portal for clinicians – to help women recover from everything from cervical cancer and gender-affirming surgery to childbirth.
“It may sound like resilience but it really came from a place of, ‘How can I take this really bad situation that happened to me and try to make something that is positive to help other women?’"
When she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2019, Bartholomew learned the surgery and radiation would affect her pelvic health for the rest of her life. While on bedrest, she began researching rehabilitation options and discovered women were still using devices known as dilators, which were invented in 1938.
Read her story on the Spring 2021 University of Waterloo Magazine.