Aileen Lamb on Breast Cancer, Finding Purpose and Starting Again

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Breast cancer changed Aileen Lamb’s perspective on life but it also gave her the courage to ask one important question… “If not now, when?”

If you only have a minute, read this: A breast cancer diagnosis inspired former media CEO Aileen Lamb to follow a lifelong dream and launch Heirloom Perfumery. This week on “Good Things with Brent Lindeque”, we chat about finding purpose after life’s scariest moments, discovering your ikigai and embracing new beginnings. It’s a deeply personal conversation as my own mom has just completed breast cancer treatment.

Johannesburg, South Africa (14 October 2026) – A breast cancer diagnosis can change everything, including the way you see your future and the things you thought you had all the time in the world to do. But for one South African woman, an incredibly difficult chapter also became the beginning of something beautiful and her story is filled with hope and a wonderful reminder that it is never too late to follow a dream (or find your ikigai).

On this week’s episode of “Good Things with Brent Lindeque“, I got to sit down with Aileen Lamb (or Ails, as she likes to be called) to talk about her breast cancer journey and the unexpected new direction her life has taken.

My own mom has just finished radiation treatment following her breast cancer diagnosis, something I’ve spoken about very publicly. And with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it felt like the perfect opportunity to have a candid conversation about something that affects so many families. But this isn’t a sad story. Not for Ails’ story or my mom. It’s about raising awareness and recognising that life can still hold so many incredible possibilities on the other side of a diagnosis.

Aileen, the former CEO of New Media, was diagnosed with breast cancer on Women’s Day, at exactly the same age her own mother had received the same diagnosis. Thankfully, it was detected early but the experience made her reassess her priorities and ask herself one very important question: “If not now, when?” For years, she’d dreamed of doing something completely different and she finally decided to pursue it. She immersed herself in the fascinating world of perfumery, spending months learning the craft before launching Heirloom Perfumery, a proudly South African fragrance brand inspired by memory and the moments that shape our lives. And 5 percent of every online sale goes to Project Flamingo, supporting women undergoing breast cancer treatment in South Africa’s public healthcare system.

Ails doesn’t define herself by her diagnosis. It’s part of her story but she’s taken an experience that could have made her world feel smaller and used it to discover an entirely new passion.

It’s interesting how the things that scare us most can sometimes push us into chapters we never imagined. They can make us reassess what matters and perhaps even lead us towards finding our ikigai, a Japanese concept that loosely translates to “a reason for being”. It’s about discovering what gives your life meaning and makes you excited to get up in the morning.

That’s exactly what Ails has found.

Watching my own mom reach the end of her treatment has given me an even greater appreciation for conversations like this. Behind every diagnosis is a person with dreams and so much life still waiting to be lived. We don’t always get to choose what happens to us but there can still be beautiful things waiting on the other side of our hardest chapters. Ails is living proof that a frightening diagnosis doesn’t have to be the end of a story. It can also be the beginning of something extraordinary.

Catch our full conversation on this week’s “Good Things with Brent Lindeque“. I think you’re going to love meeting Ails.

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