SHE’S a millionaire businesswoman with the world at her feet but Rachel Watkyn is only too aware that health battles can affect anyone, no matter how rich.
The Dragons’ Den entrepreneur has revealed she has battled cancer for a fourth time – after doctors discovered a melanoma during a routine skin check.
The multi-millionaire, whose eco-packaging Tiny Box Company employs 100 staff and turns over more than £10million a year, said hearing the diagnosis left her thinking: “Here we go again.”
Rachel, whose successful eco-packaging Tiny Box Company employs 100 staff and turns over more than £10million a year, carries what she calls a “dodgy gene” that leaves her highly susceptible to cancer.
She discovered the suspicious mole during a routine check at Guy’s Hospital Skin Clinic in London in February 2025.
And now Rachel, 55, tells The Sun : “I went for a mole check-up because I’ve got a dodgy gene.
“It affects any soft tissue, as opposed to just breasts and ovaries. So I went to Guy’s Skin Clinic and obviously stripped down to my pants.
“And she looked all over me, and it was tiny but I said to the specialist, ‘I’m not sure about that one’.”
Rachel said the mole behaved slightly differently from her other marks.
“The only sign was that when I went out in the sun, and went in the shower, it went a bit red, but none of the others did. It was brown. It looked like all the others, but it was a bit misshapen but it went red in the sun.”
Tests revealed the mark was melanoma in situ, the earliest stage of melanoma. The mole was removed immediately, but doctors later needed to excise a larger area.
Rachel added: “They cut it out that day and sent it to the lab. Then they called back and said it was melanoma and they needed to take a much bigger area.
“I had the original bit taken out that day in February and I was back in the middle of March for the rest to be taken out.”
Rachel said the news was emotionally exhausting after years of serious health conditions.
Her previous diagnoses include breast cancer in 2016, lung cancer discovered in 2018 with surgery in early 2019, and a second breast cancer scare leading to a double mastectomy just four years ago.
She says: “Hearing that news again? It was ‘here we go again’. I was just like, ‘give me a break.’ It was the end of 2022 that I’d had the double mastectomy. So I was like, ‘come on now’.”
Sister’s final gift
Rachel credits her survival to proactive screening – and her late sister Kathleen, who died from terminal lung cancer.
For if it wasn’t for Kathleen, Rachel would have never discovered she had Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) – a rare, inherited genetic condition that drastically increases the risk of developing multiple cancers.
“I am very aware that I am only here because my sister died because if she hadn’t had terminal lung cancer I wouldn’t have gone for a full body scan.
“I remember I just had a hunch and within two days I was told I had a 2cm tumour in my lung. If I hadn’t done that I wouldn’t be here now but it’s just a shame my sister had to die for me to be given that opportunity.”
The loss of her sister has shaped her life since.
She says: “I do feel guilty about that but I also said, ‘make every day count’ because my sister can’t and that’s always been my philosophy since.
“One of my sister’s biggest regrets was that she’d said she couldn’t afford to go and have a private scan. If she had had that she’d still be alive now.
“She could have – she was a successful lawyer – but she just didn’t make her health the priority over family and work.”
Rachel is determined to protect her own health after so much trauma.
She stars in an episode of Channel 5’s Rich House Poor House, which airs on Sunday, in which she reveals for the first time that she has had cancer four times now.
In it, the show’s narrator claims Rachel spends over £20,000 a year on organic food, exercise, swimming, and medical screening.
“I do prioritise health,” she says. “My biggest health related indulgence is probably on having private scans though.
“Every time I get scanned privately it’s £1,800. It’s a health lottery sadly. Fortunately, now under NICE guidelines I can have full body scans on the NHS, but until last year I couldn’t. Even though I have to have them, because of the gene I have, I still had to pay.”
The fourth cancer diagnosis is referenced for the first time on the episode.
Struggling family
For the show, Rachel, her husband Steve, 60, and Steve’s 12-year-old granddaughter Amelia swapped their £2million Sussex home for the housing association flat of single mum Lyndsey Morton, 49, and her daughter Katie Morton.
Katie, 21, has had her pancreas, spleen, gall bladder, and part of her stomach removed due to a rare pancreatic disease. Lyndsey herself had a hysterectomy and now suffers with arthritis, and fibromyalgia, which often leaves her bed-bound.
Together, they survive on just £91.38 disposable income a week. Rachel said meeting the family was overwhelming.
She burst into tears walking into their flat for the first time, and learning, from pinned messages and cards on their wall, of Katie’s own health plight.
Hearing that news again? It was ‘here we go again’. I was just like, ‘give me a break.’
Rachel Watkyn
“It was actually nothing to do with my health at all,” Rachel says. ” It was this overwhelming feeling of what Katie had gone through. She just had her 21st birthday.
“I didn’t even know you couldn’t live without a pancreas and a spleen and a gallbladder. I thought I’d had a rough ride medically, but not like her.”
The family were moved by the mum and daughter’s limited budget, which they swapped for their own of £2,000 a week.
“Imagine if we had to live on that regularly – we would definitely struggle,” Steve admits.
During the eye-opening episode, Rachel arranged for Lyndsey and Katie to take part in a lavish photoshoot to build up their confidence as they recover from such devastating health issues.
They also had a singing lesson with Rachel’s private coach at her home.
Meanwhile, Rachel, Steve and Amelia get to sample a typical family day out that Lyndsey and Katie might have – including the far cheaper pursuit of crabbing.
Rachel’s business started from humble beginnings.
She first came up with the idea after struggling to find environmentally friendly packaging for a jewellery venture she was planning.
She had been inspired to launch a fair-trade jewellery brand after witnessing extreme poverty while working in Sierra Leone and Kenya. But the business almost never happened.
Just before launching the venture in 2007 Rachel suffered complications following what should have been a routine appendix operation.
The surgery went badly wrong, leaving her bedridden for nine months and unable to work properly for nearly three years while she recovered.
During that time she began planning her future business from home – eventually launching Tiny Box Company from her parents’ back bedroom with just £4,000 in savings.
The gamble paid off.
Rachel appeared on Dragons’ Den in September 2008, where she and business partner Christian Richardson secured a £60,000 investment for from Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones – which helped her build the huge and highly profitable business that has become her life.
But the experience of Rich House, Poor House left a lasting impression – with Rachel and Steve both offering to help support Lyndsey and Katie in rebuilding their lives as they overcome ongoing health issues.
“We speak fairly regularly,” she said.
“They came over a week after the show and we spent the day around the pool chatting about what Katie wanted to achieve and what Lyndsey wanted to achieve.”
For Rachel, the week reinforced a powerful lesson.
“As fast as you can go up, just like that you can be down again,” she said.
“We were actually left with £11 at the end of the week with them. We didn’t struggle because both Steve and I have always been conscious that fortunes can change very quickly.
“And experiences like this remind you that what really matters in life isn’t money – it’s people.”
Rachel’s episode of Rich House Poor House airs on Channel 5, March 22nd, 9pm.