After struggling to comfort a friend through a life-changing diagnosis, an Eastbourne midwife has built a gifting business designed to help people show up thoughtfully, when it matters most.
How do you package care or deliver love in a moment that words cannot quite hold?
This was the question that the University of Brighton Midwifery graduate, Vix Fuller, found herself grappling with in 2023, after a close friend received a life-changing diagnosis.
What began as a simple desire to lift her friend’s spirits quickly became an emotional search for the right way to show her love; a search that would eventually spark the idea behind a gifting service designed to help others do the same, with thoughtfulness and ease.
“I just didn’t know what to send,” Vix said.
“Flowers felt too predictable, and everything I found barely reflected how much I cared or what she was going through. In the end, I teamed with another friend to gather all her favourite things and packed them into a box to send to her. She loved the gift and it made her smile. It meant a lot to her, and we were really glad to have been able to curate something meaningful for her.”
Rather than let the experience pass, Vix chose to act on it. She co-founded Send a Smile, a gifting service designed to remove the stress and uncertainty associated with deciding how best to show support for others.
It specialises in curating thoughtful wellbeing gifts boxes, tailored to life’s more sensitive moments, from illness and recovery to grief and emotional support.
In 2025, the business became a Small Business Sunday Winner, providing exclusive access to networking communities and business support platforms.
Since launching, Send a Smile has helped to send thousands of gifts across the UK, assisting customers in curating meaningful alternatives to generic gifting, and helping turn moments of uncertainty into opportunities for connection.