It was a career-ending back injury that floated the idea of a wellness centre business, but the initial appeal was driven by Kerry and Scott Thurrowgood’s need for pain relief.

At the age of 40, after 23 years as a roofer, Scott was told that he would never work on another one again.

“That was obviously really challenging with four kids, a mortgage and the rest of it,” says Scott’s wife Kerry, who had been a personal trainer for the 10 years prior to the diagnosis.

“The pain he was suffering was so bad that he couldn’t even put his shoes on, so we starting to look for things that were going to help him with his pain management,” she added.

The pair started off by exploring infrared saunas and then someone suggested float therapy.

“He went and had a float and had a whole hour of no pain, which was life-changing,” said Kerry, adding that they also tried cryotherapy. “We were travelling all around Melbourne, when one day we were sitting at the kitchen table saying it would be really nice if the therapy centres were closer, and all under the one roof.”

The following February, the Melbourne Float House threw open its doors, and according to Kerry their centre is the largest of its kind in Australia.

“We did a huge amount of research in terms of looking into what the treatments were, we work hand-in-hand with physiotherapists and have a lot of physios and doctors who refer to us.”

For those who have never tried floating, infrared saunas or cryotherapy, all these therapies, Kerry will tell you, are a proactive way of looking after our health as opposed to a reactive one.

“Our float is the equivalent of four hours or of meditation in terms of the positive effects it has on the brain.

“We’ve got a lot of clients that struggle with anxiety and depression, and they come in weekly, or people with PTSD, we have a lot of people who come in that are in the services – the police and ambulance – they use our centre as part of their mental health plans,” adds Kerry.

With Scott having undergone surgery and now in much less pain and the business having ridden out Covid closures and celebrating three years in operation, the Thurrowgood’s who were with Bartercard originally, decided it was time to join the growing Qoin merchant community.

“It was just a no-brainer from our side of things,” according to Kerry, “we do have our times when we’ve got down-time … I’m really grateful we got on it when we did.”

Like so many other merchants in the Qoin ecosystem, the management team at Melbourne Float House saw the utility currency as “the new frontier”, and one that “makes a huge amount of sense”.

“In terms of our business, we’ve used Qoin to get our brochures done and we’ve had signage done too, and then personally, we bought a caravan using it and got some rendering work done on our house as well,” Kerry notes.

And, she has some sound advice for anyone who may be considering joining the community.

“You definitely haven’t missed the boat, as more and more people get used to using digital currencies it’s going to be the norm.”