Maddalena Easterbrook’s Future Swirl started in a food truck and expanded fast. Photo: Supplied.
Maddalena Easterbrook was a normal, healthy, energetic young woman in her late 20s. And she had a thriving business as the founder of Future Swirl – a vegan oat milk soft swirl food truck that expanded to tubs of oat milk ice cream in local supermarkets, and long-term expansion plans.
And then she started experiencing some strange symptoms.
“It was really weird and random, honestly. I had a lingering cold, then, all of a sudden, I felt like I was losing my balance. I would be writing an email and then my left hand would just stop working,” she told Region.
“I sort of developed a weird limp. That was when I knew something definitely wasn’t right. I was malfunctioning!”
Just a week before her 30th birthday, Maddi received a diagnosis: Multiple Sclerosis.
Maddi celebrated her 30th birthday in hospital: “Such a bummer!” Photo: Supplied.
As her health declined, she had to cancel events and pull her tubs of ice cream off the shelves at local ACT grocery stores. And with her diagnosis, she knew that a decision needed to be made about the future of her business.
“Whenever something big happens that you’re not expecting, it forces you to step back and reevaluate your priorities,” she said.
“The diagnosis meant that we would either give up or scale faster. We had put so much time and money into this business, so I said, ‘There is no way in hell I am giving up!’”
Maddi realised that running the soft swirl trailer and making the tubs solo was no longer achievable for her. So she’s taken the leap into larger manufacturing, working with a family-run business in Melbourne that will make the oat milk ice cream to her specifications, package it in their custom-printed tubs, and send it out to stores in NSW, Victoria and Canberra.
Working with larger processing equipment means a few changes to the recipe – Maddi said they did a lot of test batches to get it just right – but she reckons the ice cream is “creamier than ever” and is confident their customers will love the new product.
A rendering of the newly designed future swirl packaging, coming to an IGA near you in March! Photo: Supplied.
She said she’s very grateful to the local businesses that have given her a second chance after her declining health forced her to pull out of stores with no notice and little communication.
“When I got sick, I just vanished off the face of the earth, so I’m really lucky that there is such a supportive local business community. They were so understanding, and they’re excited to restock us when we come back.
“I don’t think I would have had that second chance anywhere else but Canberra.”
The recipe underwent rigorous testing to achieve the creamy swirl Maddalena is looking for. Photo: Supplied.
While initially hesitant to speak out, Maddi decided to make her story public with a social media post. She had been receiving many enquiries about the soft swirl trailer coming to events, and customers were asking where they could find her product. She decided she owed the community an explanation as to why she’d been so quiet, and what they could expect next.
“I’ve had such a nice response, people have been really supportive and there’s been lots of people reaching out who know someone with MS or have been diagnosed themselves.”
For now, Maddi is selling the soft-serve trailer to help someone else make their own ice cream dreams a reality. And new and improved Future Swirl tubs will be on the shelves in March.
Keep up to date with Future Swirl via Instagram.
