who we are

Charlie and Annie are two women with a passion to make a difference.

They are old school friends: a perfect blend of rebellious adventurer and studious captain of school. And they’ve been planning to change the world since they were 10 years old!

Charlie's story

The university of life took Charlie around the world. She worked on a boat in the Caribbean serving the likes of Pierce Brosnan and Mick Jagger; she sailed her own boat and was shipwrecked on a deserted island; she was a Cordon Bleu chef, owning her own catering company in London; and she owned a restaurant in the French Alps.

Then in 2006, Charlie had The Dream: She wanted to provide food and education to enhance lives with increased energy, greater vitality and superior health, delivered in a way that is fun, accessible, tasty, satisfying and easy to incorporate into a busy schedule.

She’d been living in Key West for two years, and left for New York on a mission to learn everything she could about nutrition, whole foods, raw foods and food and healing. She enrolled in the chefs training program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, and got a job at Pure Food and Wine, the premier raw food restaurant. She absorbed herself in the lifestyle, met some great people and learned a lot. Two and a half years later the opportunity arose to come back to Key West and open her own restaurant.

Annie's story

Annie’s university education was slightly more formal, with a degree from the European Business School in London and Paris, and then a career in the city.

While Charlie was dreaming of nutrition, Annie was thriving in the corporate world: big international projects, databases, spreadsheets, conference calls and commuting! But she was looking for a change of focus. And having planned a million businesses with Charlie since they were 10 years old, it was on a business trip to New York that they burnt the midnight oil, and realised the time was right. Annie has been working behind the scenes at Help Yourself since it started – mostly from London, thanks to the wonderful worldwide web. She’s now in Key West, and helping to turn the dream into reality.

our team

Everyone at Help Yourself is passionate about what we do. Take a look at our video and meet some of the lovely people who we get to spend our days with:

And we offer a huge thank you to all of those who have helped us along the way.