The Friendship Behind ProspHER: How Katie Oman and Serena Fordham Built More Than a Business -

Sometimes, the greatest success story isn’t about a company. It’s about the friendship that made it possible.

“A friend loves at all times.” — Proverbs 17:17

This article is written in loving memory of Katie Oman, whose kindness, friendship, and commitment to empowering women continue to inspire people around the world. It also honors the beautiful friendship she shared with Serena Fordham, reminding us that behind every meaningful mission is someone who quietly lifts others up.

While I may not be the best person to tell Katie’s story, Serena’s heartfelt tribute and Katie’s kindness inspired me to write this article. More importantly, it made me stop and ask myself, Who is my Katie behind PCOS Millennials?

We all have someone who quietly believes in us, encourages us, and helps us keep going. This is my way of honoring Katie’s legacy by remembering those people and encouraging others to do the same.

There are people who come into our lives for a reason.

Some stay for a season and a rare few leave behind a legacy that continues long after they’re gone. When we think about successful businesses, we often picture strategies, funding, meetings, and milestones.

We celebrate growth charts, awards, and achievements.

We admire founders for their resilience and vision. But behind some of the most meaningful organizations are stories that never appear in business reports.

The stories of friendship. The stories of loyalty.

Stories of two people choosing to believe in the same dream, even when no one else could see it yet.

That is the story of ProspHER.

Many people know ProspHER as a platform that empowers women to grow their careers, businesses, and confidence. It has become a place where women support women, celebrate one another, and discover opportunities they may never have found on their own.

What many people may not know is that behind this mission were two women whose friendship became the heart of everything they built.

Serena Fordham and Katie Oman were not simply business partners.

They were best friends. They were sisters by choice and together, they created something far greater than a company.

They created hope.

Some Friendships Don’t Just Change Lives. They Change Other People’s Lives Too.

In today’s world, we often hear stories about competition.

Who is more successful? Who earns more? Who gets promoted first? Who builds the bigger business?

Women are too often told that there is only room for one person at the top. But every once in a while, a story comes along that quietly proves the opposite. Katie and Serena showed that success doesn’t have to come from standing above someone else.

Sometimes it comes from standing beside them.

Every woman deserves someone who believes in her dreams, especially during the moments when she begins to doubt herself. Building a business is difficult. Building an advocacy is even harder.

There are sleepless nights.

Unexpected setbacks. Moments when giving up feels easier than continuing. In those moments, the right friend can become your greatest strength.

Reading Serena’s words after Katie’s sudden passing made one thing incredibly clear.

She wasn’t mourning only a colleague. She was mourning someone she loved deeply. Someone she laughed with. Someone she trusted.

Someone she built dreams with.

In her own tribute, Serena described Katie as her “best friend,” her “sister,” and someone whose energy could light up every room she entered. Those weren’t words written for social media. They came from a grieving heart.

You can feel the love in every sentence.

The Woman Behind the Smile

Katie wasn’t the type of person people remembered because of a title.

Yes, she served as COO and Events Director of ProspHER, helping shape experiences that brought women together. She helped organize events. She supported the community.

She worked tirelessly behind the scenes.

But those who knew her rarely started by talking about her role. Instead, they remembered her smile. Her warmth. Her laughter. Her creativity. Her kindness.

When Serena shared the heartbreaking news of Katie’s passing, she described her as bubbly, loyal, passionate, creative, supportive, and completely one of a kind.

She even called Katie her “favourite Scouser,” a small phrase that says so much about the closeness they shared. Real friendships are often remembered through little things.

Nicknames. Private jokes. Shared memories. The moments that only two friends understand.

Those are the details that make grief feel so heavy.

Because when someone leaves this world, it’s not only the big milestones we miss. We miss the ordinary moments. The messages. The laughter.

The conversations after a long day.

The excitement of planning something together. The simple comfort of knowing someone is always there. Katie was clearly that person for Serena.

Not only in business. In life.

More Than a Business Partnership

It’s easy to build a company.

It’s much harder to build trust. Trust cannot be purchased. It isn’t created overnight. It grows through difficult conversations, shared victories, disappointments, forgiveness, and showing up for each other again and again.

That kind of trust was visible in ProspHER.

Reading Serena’s tribute wasn’t like reading a corporate announcement. It felt like opening someone’s journal. Every sentence carried the weight of a friendship that had been built over years.

She wrote that writing had always been therapy for both of them.

That one sentence quietly revealed another part of their relationship.They didn’t only build businesses together. They processed life together. They found healing through words.Perhaps that’s why Serena chose to write about Katie after her passing.

Not because words could erase the pain.

But because words were one of the languages their friendship had always spoken.

The Ripple Effect of Kindness

One of the most beautiful things about kindness is that we rarely see how far it travels.

A small act of encouragement today may become someone’s reason to keep going tomorrow. A simple conversation can change the direction of someone’s life.A few thoughtful words can stay in someone’s heart for years.

Katie seemed to understand that.

She didn’t reserve kindness only for people she had known for years. She gave it freely. To friends. To colleagues.

To women she believed in.

Even to people living thousands of miles away. And that is how, without ever meeting her in person, our paths crossed.

A Kindness That Reached Across the World

There is something remarkable about people who make others feel seen.

Not because they have to. Not because it is part of their job. But because that is simply who they are.

The world often celebrates the loudest voices, the biggest achievements, and the people standing on the stage. Yet the people we remember the longest are often those who quietly made us believe that our work mattered.

From everything Serena shared about Katie, one truth became impossible to ignore.

Katie cared about people. Not only the women who attended ProspHER events. Not only the team she worked alongside every day. She cared about the community they were building together. She celebrated people. She encouraged them and she understood that every person who believed in ProspHER was helping make the mission a little bigger.

Sometimes, the smallest gestures tell us the most about someone’s character.

A Review That Was Written From the Heart

Several weeks before the heartbreaking news of Katie’s passing, I wrote an article about ProspHER on the PCOS Millennials website.

It wasn’t sponsored. No one asked me to write it. There was no expectation of recognition.

I wrote it because I genuinely believed more women deserved to know about what Serena, Katie, and the rest of the ProspHER team had built.

As someone who also runs a women’s advocacy platform, I understand how difficult it is to create something that truly helps people. Most people only see the finished website. They don’t see the countless hours spent planning.

The moments of self-doubt.

The late nights. The sacrifices or the hope that someone, somewhere, will find value in what you’ve created. That was exactly why I wanted to share ProspHER with my own community.

Women helping women should never stop at borders.

Whether someone lives in the United Kingdom, the Philippines, or anywhere else in the world, support should always be able to reach them. I clicked “Publish” without expecting anything in return.

For me, simply sharing a platform I believed in was enough.

Not long after, I shared the article on LinkedIn. Then something happened that completely surprised me.

Katie commented.

She wrote,

“This review has put the biggest smile on my face! Thank you Resa Nabor for doing this.”

At that moment, I smiled. Not because I was looking for recognition. But because someone who had poured her heart into building ProspHER had taken the time to notice a small act of support from someone thousands of miles away.

It would have been easy for Katie to scroll past my post.

She could have been busy. She could have simply clicked the “Like” button. Instead, she chose to leave a message.

A simple message.

A genuine message. One that reflected exactly the kind of person Serena had been describing all along.nKind.

Grateful. Thoughtful.

The more I think about those words today, the more I realize they say just as much about Katie as they do about the review itself.

She didn’t make the conversation about her. She chose gratitude, that was her instinct and sometimes, our instincts reveal our true character better than anything else.

Kindness Doesn’t Need to Be Grand

We often believe changing someone’s life requires a huge act.

A major donation. A life-changing opportunity. A dramatic moment. But life rarely works that way. Sometimes, the things we remember most are the smallest ones.

A message. A compliment. A thank you. A few sincere words.

Katie probably never imagined that her comment would become one of my lasting memories of her. To her, it may have simply been a way of saying thank you.

To me, it became a reminder that kindness always matters.

Especially in a world where people are quick to criticize and slow to encourage. As founders, we know how meaningful encouragement can be. There are days when one kind message gives us enough strength to keep going.

There are moments when being seen matters more than being celebrated. Katie understood that.

And because she understood it, she gave that gift to others.

More Than Followers. More Than Numbers.

Today, so much of our attention is focused on numbers.

Followers, views, comments, likes, engagement. But none of those things measure the true impact a person leaves behind.

Katie’s legacy cannot be counted by statistics.

It lives in conversations. In friendships. In women who felt welcomed. In people who found confidence because someone believed in them. And perhaps that is the greatest measure of success.

Not how many people know your name. But how many people became better because they knew you.

That is a legacy no algorithm can calculate.

The World Needs More Women Like Katie

Katie’s story reminds us that changing lives doesn’t always require standing on a stage.

Sometimes it begins with something as simple as encouraging another woman. Celebrating her success. Replying to her message.

Believing in her dream before anyone else does.

Those small moments may seem ordinary. But to the person receiving them, they can mean everything. That is the kind of legacy Katie leaves behind.

Not one built only through ProspHER, but through every life she quietly touched along the way.

Thank You, Katie

Although I never had the opportunity to meet Katie in person, I will always remember her kindness.

I will remember the day she took a moment to thank me for writing about ProspHER.

Her words were simple.

“This review has put the biggest smile on my face! Thank you Resa Nabor for doing this.”

At the time, it felt like a thoughtful comment.

Today, it feels like a gift.

A reminder that kindness is never wasted.

You never know when a few sincere words will become someone’s treasured memory.

For Serena,

When you told me you wanted to keep Katie’s memory alive, I knew this article deserved to be told not because she was a leader, not because she helped build ProspHER but because she showed the world what genuine friendship looks like.

The friendship you shared reminds us that behind every meaningful mission are people who choose to lift each other up.

Thank you for sharing Katie with the world.

And thank you for reminding us that the greatest legacy we can leave isn’t measured by awards, titles, or success.

It’s measured by the lives we touch and the love we leave behind.

A Legacy That Lives On

As the founder of PCOS Millennials, I believe women become stronger when we choose collaboration over competition and kindness over comparison.

That is why I wanted to write this article.

Not simply to remember Katie. But to remind every woman reading this that your kindness matters. Your encouragement matters. Your friendship matters.

You may never fully know how deeply your words can impact someone’s life.

Katie may no longer be here, but every time a woman supports another woman, every time someone chooses compassion instead of comparison, and every time a dream is lifted by another dream, a part of her legacy lives on.

Some friendships change two lives.

Katie and Serena’s friendship changed thousands and I hope it continues to inspire thousands more.

Rest in peace, Katie.

Your story doesn’t end here.

Because the people whose lives you touched will continue telling it.

In the end, people may forget what you built, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Katie Oman made people feel seen, valued, and never alone. That is a legacy that time can never erase.