The Founder's Story

Hi I'm Rory. I'm 23 years old I love sport. In particular field hockey. In fact I love Hockey so much that I pursued it to the point of representing the England Men's team in the FIH Pro League.

Sport has shaped everything about me. Discipline, resilience, the relentless pursuit of excellence. My body has always been my tool, my craft, my identity.

Then at 20 years I was diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis.

An autoimmune condition. Chronic. Unpredictable. Invisible.

Overnight, my relationship with my body changed.

Flare-ups that didn't make sense. Fatigue no one could see. Pain that didn't match how "healthy" I looked. And the hardest part wasn't the physical side - it was how invisible it all felt.

As an athlete, people assume strength. Durability. Robustness. Autoimmune disease doesn't fit that narrative. So I had to learn how to live well differently. How to train intelligently. How to regulate stress, respect recovery, and advocate for myself in medical rooms. How to separate my worth from my output.

What I couldn't find was a space for people like me - ambitious, driven, high-performing - talking honestly about what it actually means to live with an autoimmune condition.

So I decided to build one.

This is bigger than a product.

Roughly 1 in 10 people in the UK are living with an autoimmune condition. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Hashimoto's, MS, type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease and more. Most of them are doing it alone - not because they want to, but because the spaces to talk honestly about it don't really exist.

The symptoms don't always show. And those diagnosed become experts at being mentally tough and just getting on with it.

Which is admirable. But it would be a better world if they didn't have to.

I only told the England Hockey coaching team about my arthritis when I couldn't walk properly during a flare up. That was a lowlight. And I don't want that to be someone else's story.

The physical reality is hard enough. The isolation makes it harder.

This mission exists so fewer people feel that invisibility — so they can learn to thrive with their condition, not just survive it.

Every purchase of TUNG directly funds that mission. Right now that means free weekly online yoga sessions open to everyone — a space to move, breathe and connect with people who get it. But that's just the beginning.

The bigger vision is awareness events, community meetups, workshops and resources — all free, all built around the people who need them most. The more TUNG grows, the more we can build.

TUNG is the first thing we've built. A copper tongue scraper — simple, evidence-backed, the same price as a pint. It's not a cure. It's not a miracle. It's one honest tool, built by someone who uses it every morning because their body demands it.

It turns out playing hockey and teaching yoga isn't going to pay the bills for any of this. So we sell tongue scrapers. Every purchase keeps the community free and the doors open for everyone who needs it.

This is for you if:

You're building a career, raising a family, chasing goals — while managing a condition most people can't see.

You know what it means to be strong and struggling at the same time.

You're done feeling like those two things can't coexist.

They can. And you deserve a community that knows it.

No miracle cures. No false promises. No toxic positivity. Just truth, tools, and solidarity.