My story

Temitope Adeosun created Lovemeds online dating from her experience whilst attempting to date during her cancer treatment. She received a breast cancer diagnosis at the age 40 as a single mother of one, working full time. Her life came screeching to a halt when she realised the cruel and deadly effect of cancer and its treatments. She was prepared for Chemotherapy, Mastectomy and Radiotherapy with the reality of permanent infertility due to her age. She was hoping to complete her treatments in one year, however she had to undergo three major surgeries within 5 months and two chemotherapy and radiotherapy, lasting for two years altogether. She was not prepared for the devastating effects of cancer diagnosis, the damaging and long term side effects of cancer treatments. She realised the interesting thing about cancer is that here you are just trying to survive, and life around you goes on. It felt like everyone went about their business and she was over on the sideline, just watching and praying. 

As a cancer patient, some of the struggles she faced was body image issues from mastectomy scars, gaining extra weight, self-esteem issues from loss of breast, financial worry from loss of income and long lasting side effects, all of which did not help when trying to navigate on regular dating apps. The regular dating apps out there focussed more on physical appearance and the “first look“ but as we all know, dating can be really challenging especially in a culture that’s focused less on commitment and more on casual dating or physical appearance. During this journey, she found how it was incredibly difficult to date or experience love with people on regular dating app as it was just stressful! It was very isolating and scary whenever she thought about meeting people that might judge her based on her health status without taking time to know the real person. 

Initially, she struggled to put herself out there dating online but when she eventually did, it was a very difficult experience due to the fear of disclosure and the awkwardness. She searched everywhere online but couldn’t find anything designed for people with health status or disability trying to find true love without the fear of discrimination. She found that there was a gap in the market for people to meet each other where they didn’t have to explain themselves over and over again to meet other people who understands. She quickly came to realise that many people often forget that we live in these bodies that we don’t always have control over, but people just never talk about it. 

During this difficult time, she realised that being single and searching for a committed relationship involved dating which was an uncomfortable and often taboo topic for someone affected by cancer. So she hoped there was a dating app that took the focus away from her medical condition and make her dating experience more positive and enjoyable. Even though she was going through the darkest and hardest period in her life, she was determined to continue maintaining a normal life as much as possible and not allow the cancer to determine her life, including searching for love. As difficult as it was, she kept reminding herself that cancer was not her predominant trait, it’s only a part of who she is, so she focussed on enjoy life to the fullest.

At this point,Temitope decided to create a dating website that allowed people to connect deeply and remove the need to explain oneself when trying to navigate dating with a health status or disability. So she built Lovemeds purposely to meet the needs of likeminded people who would understand any health issues that you might have and hope to build a meaningful connection with you, without judgment. You can disclose your medical condition or disability from the beginning through your profile or chat, perhaps choose to disclose over time after you begin to form a connection with someone. The depth of your profile cannot be read by just anyone as you get to choose how you want to disclose your health status.