Meet Donal Bourke, Founder at CBD Oil Company: Mindful Extracts

On 5th June 2015 I had a near-fatal motorbike accident where I collided with another vehicle at high speed and I was catapulted 40 metres down the road. I was put in an induced coma for 11 days and spent three months in hospital. I suffered four broken vertebrae, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, arms, fingers and thumbs, bruised heart and diaphragm, broken knee, legs, ankles and toes. My left leg had the flesh ripped off down to the bone, so they removed two muscles from my back and rebuilt my leg.

Fast forward eighteen months, I was left with chronic back pain and arthritis and I was diagnosed with PTSD. I was taking four different heavy-duty painkillers (including morphine) every day, but I was still in pain 24/7.

A friend gave me a bottle of CBD oil and suggested I try it. Within half an hour I experienced better pain relief than I was getting from the cocktail of painkillers, with none of the side effects. I was sleeping better and I was less anxious.

Almost overnight I decided to ditch the painkillers. I knew they weren’t helping me mentally – I was lethargic, demotivated and they were slowly rotting my body and mind. I weaned myself off morphine within a couple of weeks and never looked back.

I experimented with lots of different CBD brands and found big variations in ineffectiveness. There are lots of companies selling inferior CBD and different types of CBD, like CBD isolate, which is cheap and nowhere near as effective as a full-spectrum product.

I felt that people needed a trustworthy and ethical company that they could rely on for consistently high-quality products. I was always disappointed when my CBD turned up in plastic packaging, with polystyrene chips, and felt that the vast majority of consumers of CBD were, like me, eco-conscious and deserved better.

I joined forces with childhood friend Nick de Haan and Mindful Extracts was born. From the outset, we have committed to being 100% recyclable, zero plastic (nearly!), and we plant a tree with every order. We also allocate 5% of our profits to charity.

Our focus is on producing products of the highest quality, with all-natural ingredients, organically sourced (and certified wherever possible). When it comes to CBD we believe in using the whole of the hemp plant to encapsulate as much of nature’s goodness as possible (all the cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids). We process it minimally to preserve that goodness and we lab test everything with the best independent laboratory in Europe, so we can guarantee the potency of each bottle.
 
 
Mindful Extracts Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of  mindfulextracts.co.uk
 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
We launched in September 2020, so we caught a wave of interest in CBD products as the public sought natural relief for the anxiety we all shared about the COVID pandemic. It was a great testbed for our first batch of CBD oil and we were getting amazing feedback from people who hadn’t been able to sleep in days or had heightened anxiety, so we knew that our extract was spot on and our pre-launch testing was right. Less than a year after launch we won an award for ‘Best CBD Brand for Anxiety’ which was a proud moment for us and justified eighteen months work developing a superior product.

The pandemic has made many people look for new ways to relax and destress, and there’s a growing movement towards natural solutions – so that’s always front of mind when we are launching and developing new products.
 

 

What can we hope to see from Mindful Extracts in the future?

 
We’ve just launched a range of supplements – including functional mushrooms which we believe will be the next big wellbeing trend in the UK to follow CBD. We worked with a leading mycologist for many months to ensure the extracts were as effective as possible.

We’re currently developing more natural body care products to extend the CBD range and we’re constantly researching new ingredients that could help customers and listening to what they want. But we won’t launch a product that we don’t believe in it ourselves – we have a great community of testers that help us pilot and improve our products. The vast majority of our customers suffer anxiety, sleep disorders and chronic pain so that will continue to be the focus for future product development.