Happy International Women’s Day! Today we want to celebrate all the amazing women in the world, no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you are amazing! Don’t ever forget it! Moving a little closer to home and to the COYO® family we want to give a big shout out to our Co-Founder, Sandra Gosling. You are a serious inspiration to us all! You have accomplished so much and we thought today was the perfect day to share a little bit of your amazing story with our COYO® family.

Sandra Fernandez Knight was born in June 1944, in the small country town of Matamata in the Waikato, New Zealand. Growing up on picturesque farming land, Sandra’s childhood memories were filled with days working her beloved horses and fulfilling her daily duties as part of a farming family. Sandra’s love of animals and inquisitive mind led her to apply to join the Ruakura Animal Research team and while waiting for acceptance was offered a position as a trainee bacteriologist in a medical laboratory. In 1976, Sandra was diagnosed with severe Asthma, and told she would live with this respiratory disease for the rest of her life. Instead of settling with her diagnosis, Sandra delved into the study of Naturopathy to gain a better understanding of the human body. Building off her already in depth knowledge of biological science, Sandra was introduced to a number of leading nutrition professionals. Combining her study with these encounters she gained a strong understanding of the effect poor gut health has on every system of the body and turned to vegetarianism. Sandra was able to trace her allergies back to an imbalance in her gut, which led to dietary intolerance, and was able to cure her Asthma. Sandra married Henry in 1979, becoming Sandra Gosling, and with her in-depth understanding of health and vibrant culinary skills was the woman behind the man or in this case the coconut yoghurt.

In 2009, now living on the pristine Sunshine Coast of QLD Australia, Henry came to Sandra with his idea to make coconut yoghurt. Sandra was at first hesitant to embark on a new business venture at their stage in life. It would mean throwing their entire life savings onto a whim. But Sandra also knew first-hand how hard it could be suffering allergies and was also excited by the new world of dietary brilliance they could offer people living with dairy, lactose and gluten intolerances. To this day Sandra Gosling is a passionate foodie, vegetarian and professed gut health advocate. Affectionately referred to as the “fermentalist”,  Sandra plays a huge role in new flavour and product development and making sure every COYO® product is functional, good for your insides whilst still tasting absolutely DELICIOUS.