Marni Luhu Designs - a proud member of the Morden and District Chamber of Commerce in the Pembina Valley
Silver Linings Jewelry maker calls cancer blessing in disguise
By Jennifer McFee
Y ou never know when you’ll discover a hidden gem to brighten up your darkest days. Entrepreneur Marla Fehr-Sinclair stumbled across a love for jewelry-making while battling a rare cancer called Burkitt’s Lymphoma.
Entrepreneur Marla Fehr-Sinclair found the key to success and personal fulfilment when she took a silversmithing class while she was battling cancer. Now, her jewelry is a star attraction at her Morden boutique. “People think of cancer as such a horrible, horrendous thing — and it is. But for our family, so many beautiful, wonderful things came out of it. For me, it’s the gift of making jewelry. There are so many different occasions that I’ve been a part of because of something that I’ve made with my hands,” a basic silversmithing class — and changed the course of her life. After her husband’s job brought the family to Morden in 2012, Fehr-Sinclair bid farewell to her teaching career and shifted her focus to her new business — called Marni LuHu Designs after a childhood nickname bestowed by her oldest brother — creating jewelry at home for custom orders and online sales.
The former teacher, who lived in Saskatchewan at the time, spent five months in a hospital, hooked up to machines for intensive chemotherapy
treatments. As a distraction to boost her spirits, she signed up for
28 MBiz | november 2015
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