Mother's grief over loss of teen son led to starting up her business

HASINA FOUND NEW DIRECTION WITH JEWELLERY VENTURE

- By AKIFAH GANI

HASINA Momtaz, a British-Bangladeshi and Muslim mother from South Norwood, Croydon, was recently shortlisted for Entrepreneur of the Year at the Muslim Women Awards 2025.

She has told how her grief after losing her son motivated her faith-inspired jewellery business, Soul Gems London.

Her son Sami Ahmed tragically died aged 18 in 2014, in a road traffic accident. Hasina said that he died just two days before he was due to open his own restaurant business.

She said she started her business to “connect with people to speak about [her] own grief but also to support others who were going through the same”

She said: “Sami had always encouraged me to go into business. He’d even spoken about the two of us going into business together.”

During that difficult time, Hasina said: “I felt like I was the only person in the world who had lost a child. I had no one to speak to.”

She remembered “one time he made £50 and to him it felt like he made £50,000.”

When he was around 16 years old, “he started buying broken phones from eBay or Gumtree and then he'd fix them and resell them.”

Hasina shared her pride in the man Sami was becoming. On one occasion, during the month of Ramadan (fasting) for Muslims, Sami volunteered with a charity to collect money.