Boutros Bear raises £1.95m to reduce chronic illness effects

Boutros Bear has raised £1.95m to develop its B2B hybrid digital health service which specialises in chronic illness rehabilitation programmes for employees.

Based at 9 Hills Road, the company is dedicated to supporting employers to reduce the burden of chronic illness.

The effects of chronic pain represent a major economic burden for society due to increased healthcare costs, lost productivity, and sickness absence.

People with chronic pain require a complex network of support – not just pain-killing medication – that covers mental health, physical activity, community, peer-support, and healthy employment.

Online learning modules for employers enable their teams to understand how to provide the appropriate levels of support and make reasonable adjustments to their working lives. They are geared to reduced stress, anxiety and depression, and reduced risk of recurrence by the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.

Boutros Bear’s first courses are in cancer and chronic pain rehabilitation and include:

- Weekly coaching by a level 4 cancer care coach or a physiotherapist, with a personalised weekly movement plan;

- Exercise oncology pre-recorded graded return to exercise programme and post-surgery stretches;

- Group-based bi-weekly support groups;

- Coaching and guidance delivered by our dietitian online, who provides personalised meal plans and access to recipes;

- Live online art therapy; and

- One-to-one counselling.

Support groups, expert webinars and reviews of the new research papers also feature in the service.

The platform and app also track progress of exercise and nutrition tracking, with additional features on side effects, drug adherence and symptoms tracking due later this year.

Sheila Kissane-Marshall, founder and CEO of Boutros Bear, told the Cambridge Independent: “We have raised just over £1.5m in pre-seed and seed from various Cambridge Angels, members of the Cambridge Capital Group, and early-stage EIS VCs, notably Meltwind, Syndicate Room and Amadeus.

“The seed round was closed at the end of May and has a 90 days continuation time. We are in discussions with various UK and overseas investors and hope to close a maximum additional £450k of funding, so total funding with the additional £450k would be £1.95m.”

Boutros Bear’s workplace health programmes aims to address the NICE guidelines for chronic pain. Pain programmes can help up to 80 per cent of people return to work within four weeks of completing a multidisciplinary programme and reduces sick leave days by 53 days.