A Message From Leigh: On Cancer, Coming Back, and What’s Next

There are moments that stop everything. For Leigh Morris, Managing Director & Co-owner of Riverside Foods and Wellside Foods, that moment came last summer, and what followed was one of the most challenging chapters of her life.

After a breast cancer diagnosis, Leigh stepped back from the business she has spent nearly three decades building. For many of our customers, life continued as normal, because the team at Riverside Foods made sure it did. But behind the scenes, a great deal was happening: a founder navigating the fight of her life, a team rising to the occasion, and a business quietly proving just how strong its foundations really are.

Today, Leigh is back. And Riverside Foods is excited about some upcoming changes.

The Moment Everything Changed

Leigh doesn’t shy away from talking about the moment she received her diagnosis, or the moments that followed.

Her initial diagnosis came swiftly, within the government-targeted 14-day window, and was met with cautious optimism. Stage 3, operable — a difficult road ahead, but one with a clear direction. Leigh processed it, steadied herself, and remained positive.

Then came a second scan, delayed by six weeks, with results taking a further fortnight to come through. The findings changed everything. The cancer had spread to the liver. A metastatic diagnosis. Stage 4.

What made it harder was the way it was delivered. Leigh was told coldly, by a nurse ill-suited to that conversation, that this was terminal and that it was end game. What wasn’t explained in that moment was that a full treatment plan remained available, that the prognosis, whilst changed, still held a future, and that she would be moving to a different, dedicated oncology team. It was a moment of profound shock, compounded by a lack of compassion that should never be part of anyone’s cancer journey.

In time, Leigh discovered something that brought its own strange comfort. She had been diagnosed with metastatic grade 3 ductal carcinoma, a triple positive cancer. Aggressive, yes. But because of that very aggression, also highly responsive to treatment. As Leigh puts it: strangely, a positive within the diagnosis.

Her cancer, it turned out, had met its match. For now.

The shift in mindset, from lost and bewildered to focused and proactive, didn’t happen overnight. It was steadied by the people around her, and by one conversation in particular with a longstanding colleague whose quiet, practical support helped Leigh find solid ground again. When Leigh later told her how pivotal she had been, the response stopped her in her tracks. The support, it turned out, had been mutual. Years earlier, without even knowing it, Leigh had done the same for her.

It was a reminder, in one small moment, of something Leigh has always believed: that kindness given freely has a way of coming back to you.

As for the people who were noticeably absent during her most difficult year, their absence was its own kind of clarity. It showed her, with great precision, exactly who really cares and who is true.

The Team That Kept It Going

Stepping back from a business you have built from the ground up takes an enormous amount of trust. For Leigh, that trust was both tested and ultimately repaid. Not everyone rose to the occasion. Some, believing Leigh would not return, took advantage of her absence. But others, the ones who mattered, remained steadfast in their loyalty and support, never wavering. For those people, Leigh says she will feel forever blessed.

What her time away also gave her was perspective. With space to observe from a distance, she was able to see the business more clearly than ever before: its strengths, its gaps, and its extraordinary potential. Throughout the past year she remained involved at board and strategic level, ensuring that the direction of Riverside Foods stayed true even as the day-to-day continued without her. What she found, looking in, was a business that had held together. And a resolve, growing quietly within her, about what she wanted to build next.

What Recovery Teaches You About Purpose

Recovery from cancer is not a straight line. But for Leigh, there were moments of profound clarity along the way.

The turning point came when her blood markers showed the cancer was under control. Her oncologist told her to book a holiday. Slowly, cautiously, she began to feel physically stronger, and about three months after her final chemotherapy cycle she dared, for the first time, to believe in a future.

In those early months she set herself close, achievable targets. Make it to her son Oliver’s birthday. Then Christmas. Then New Year. Then her own birthday. Then a trip to her beloved South Africa. The horizon expanded gradually as confidence returned. Where once she had planned in decades, she now plans a year at a time, and she has found, unexpectedly, that there is a great deal of freedom in that.

The headspace that recovery brought with it also gave her something she hadn’t anticipated: the clarity to think differently about the business. Rebuilding, not just personally but strategically, became its own source of purpose. Out of the ashes, as Leigh puts it, something new is taking shape. That clarity was grounded, throughout everything, by the people who held her up. Her inner circle never faltered.

Her two sons, Connor and Oliver, and her three dogs were her constants, their love solid and unwavering. Her father Ray, whose Yorkshire grit is the stuff of family legend, and his wife Anna, who carried the mantle at Riverside in Leigh’s absence, provided a foundation she could always rely on. Her best friends Catriona Valentine and Paul Jones, who recently married, gave her a goal she was determined to be present for. She made it, and she wants the world to know: congratulations, her loves.

Then there is Jo Witt, Leigh’s non-biological sister and a band 7 senior sister and urgent care practitioner nurse with over 25 years NHS experience, who proved indispensable in navigating the administrative complexities of treatment. Where the system created delays and obstacles, Jo carved through them, enabling the clinical teams to do what they do best. Leigh is in no doubt: without Jo’s input and support, her journey through the treatment process would have been significantly harder. And Simona Brlogar, another non-biological sister, provided love and support from afar, maintaining a loyal, tenacious, and solid presence throughout.

Leigh also wants to name, with enormous gratitude, the wider circle of women who showed up for her, many of whom she counts amongst her closest friends: Karen Robertshaw, Debi Lumley Edwards, Paula Hunter, Elizabeth Anna Farrimond, Rebecca Hamer, Rebecca Jeffery, Steph Dylan, Emma Tappin, Emma Bussey, Lucy Taylor, Jo Cribbin, Hayley Reeves-Moore, Keryn Reeves-Moore, Lesley Hammam and many more. You know who you are.

And to the clinical team at Lingen Davies, especially Rhod, her heartfelt thanks.

A Word to Anyone Going Through It

Leigh is aware that her story will resonate with others: business owners, women in the food industry, customers, and people who are navigating a diagnosis of their own right now. She wanted to speak to them directly.

There are things she wishes someone had said to her earlier. That a metastatic diagnosis is not necessarily the end of the conversation. That treatment plans exist, that futures are still possible, and that the manner in which news is delivered does not define the reality of what lies ahead. Find the right team. Ask questions. Reach for options and answers, even when the system makes that difficult.

She also has something to say to fellow business owners, especially women, who are facing a serious health challenge whilst worrying about what happens to their company. Leigh’s message is straightforward: your business is more resilient than you think, and so are you. The people who truly care will hold the line. And the perspective you gain on the other side of something like this is not a loss. It is one of the most valuable things you will ever carry back into your work.

Leigh has always lived by a handful of simple beliefs. That no one will remember you, when you’re gone, for running one, five or twenty businesses. What people remember is your kindness and compassion, your honesty and integrity, your humour, your selflessness, your empathy and your thoughtfulness. That family comes first, and that it is often the hardest and most important place to begin. That you should do unto others as you would be done unto. That you should always try to do one kind, thoughtful thing for someone else each day, not for recognition, but simply because you can.

A cancer diagnosis, she says, doesn’t change those beliefs. It just makes them louder.

Coming Back — and What’s Next

Leigh’s return isn’t just a personal milestone. It marks the beginning of a genuinely new chapter for Riverside Foods, one she has spent many months thinking about, planning for, and looking forward to.

She is returning not to the role she left, but to a reimagined one: strategic, focused, and energised by everything the past year has taught her. The daily grind, she will be the first to admit, holds less appeal than it once did. What excites her is the bigger picture: building a new team, embracing succession and progression, and setting Riverside Foods up for another decade of growth.

The changes coming to Riverside Foods reflect that ambition. New premises in Oswestry. Fresh talent joining the team. A strategy built not on what the business has always done, but on where it is capable of going, navigating new technologies, an evolving job market, and the rapid changes brought by AI and the modern world, with the same boldness that has defined this company since its earliest days.

After almost thirty years, Leigh is returning with perhaps the clearest vision she has ever had. And the industry she has served so long can expect to hear a great deal more from Riverside Foods in the months ahead.  At Riverside Foods, we have never stood still. What’s coming next is proof of that.

A Final Word From Leigh

“I won’t pretend the last year has been easy. But I wouldn’t change what it taught me, about my team, about our customers, and about what Riverside Foods is truly made of. I’m back. We’re stronger. And the best is genuinely still to come.”

Leigh Morris, Managing Director & Co-owner, Riverside Foods & Wellside Foods