Liverpool mum launches healthy soda brand after daughter’s birth left her worried about her wellbeing

A Liverpool mum has launched a new gut-friendly soda brand after fears for her own health following the birth of her baby.

Suzanne Parkinson, who co-founded Cruzy with husband Chris, was diagnosed with postpartum thyroiditis soon after her 20-month-old daughter Darcie was born.

The condition left the 32-year-old from Childwall with chronic fatigue and struggling to get out of bed.

Suzanne admits: “It was a really low point in my life.”

But a search to find products to help her and her wellbeing led Suzanne and Chris creating one of their own – and now they’re excitedly planning a positive future for their new business and drinks brand.

Suzanne, who’s now feeling better, and enjoying far more energy says: “It’s all thanks to Darcie.”

“This was never part of our dreams, and we’d never have done this if it wasn’t for her, so it’s really Darcie who’s inspired it.”

And she smiles: “She may expect a percentage in later years!”

Suzanne and Chris, who both had corporate roles, were living overseas when their little girl was born.

But despite their delight, the new mum was diagnosed with postpartum thyroiditis – a temporary autoimmune inflammation of the thyroid gland which causes an initial period of overactive thyroid, followed by underactive thyroid – after being left with debilitating tiredness and fatigue. 

She said: “I’d have 10 hours sleep and then still couldn’t get up, and it even impacted on Chris and his job because I’d be phoning him at 2pm in the afternoon asking him to come home because I was shattered and couldn’t cope.”

While Suzanne focused on her recovery and health, paying particular attention to her gut health, the couple decided to take a career break and went on a three-month trip to the US. It was there they discovered sparkling drinks that tasted great and were good for you.

Suzanne explains: “We wondered why there wasn’t something similar in the UK, before discovering that there was, but the market’s really small we couldn’t find exactly what we were looking for, so we decided to create a premium soda built around real British fruit juice, with added fibre and live cultures.

“We started looking at manufacturers, and researching flavours; and we had multiple rounds of taste testing with a beverage consultant in Wales to perfect the recipes.”

Suzanne and Chris moved back to the UK and launched Cruzy three weeks ago. 

There are three flavours of drink – apple, blackcurrant, and strawberry and rhubarb – all made using real British juices, live cultures and plant-based fibre that work to promote and support gut health.

There are no artificial sweeteners, and everything follows Suzanne and Chris’s sustainable ethos. The drinks are produced in a carbon-negative facility, the outer packaging is printed using vegetable-based inks, and the aluminium cans are fully recyclable: “Wherever possible, ingredients and production are sourced in the UK.” 

“We really believe in the product and eventually we’d like it to become a mainstream soda that people reach for instead of a Coke.

“I know that’s ambitious but it’s amazing for you, it looks amazing, and it tastes amazing.”

Cruzy is available online and via a store and health club near the couple’s north west home and they are in talks with major high street names to hopefully see it for sale inside main stores and supermarkets. They also plan to take it to food and drink festivals over the summer months.

It’s success savoured more by former St Julie’s RC High School pupil Suzanne because at one point it looked like she was destined to fail.

“After a difficult time in my childhood, school became challenging for a while.

“And at the end of two years of sixth form I ended up with two ‘U’s and an ‘E’ for my A Levels, but then something clicked and I asked the head Mr Rimmer to let me stay on another year and I promised I’d do better and not fail. I’d be there every day until the caretaker kicked me out – and I got three ‘B’s.”

Suzanne says: “I think everything that’s happened has made me more determined than ever to succeed and we’re already trying to think of new flavours.

“So thank you Mr Rimmer – and thank you Darcie.”

Find out more about the drinks here.

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