Watch: Aesthetics doctor on coming to Glasgow as a refugee and building a business in new podcast

Dr Kaly Jaff is the entrepreneur behind The Secret in Govan, one of Glasgow’s most distinguished independent aesthetic clinics. Having arrived in Scotland from Kurdistan as a refugee at the age of six with her parents, siblings and all the belongings they could carry, the journey of how Kaly came to her profession, shaped her life and business is one of note. Responding to interest from patients she has launched a podcast in collaboration with Go Radio focused on sharing her story. 

Fresh episodes are released each Thursday where Kaly and a guest discuss various topics including her experiences in business, her career, family life, motherhood, as well as lighthearted conversation. Kaly’s two siblings and her mum each have prominent roles in the clinic, making The Secret a family-run venture. We spoke to Dr Kaly Jaff in her Southside office, and asked what listeners can expect:

“The podcast, I wanted to give a background into my life because as I’m becoming more well known in the industry, I get a lot of people asking me in the chair where I come from and what I’m doing and people are always surprised to learn that I wasn’t born here, that I didn’t have any privileges in my life, that I experienced a lot of racism growing up, and I had loads and loads of setbacks but it didn’t stop me from wanting to achieve what I always imaged I would have. I have a lot of patients coming in who have children now going into their university careers or starting to do exams and I have a lot of people wanting to do work experience here. I thought it was really nice that not only mothers but children look up to me and I wanted to give them my story. 

“I didn’t have it easy, I wasn’t privileged, I couldn’t even speak the language until I was eight. But nothing was going to stop me so that was the idea behind the podcast. It was only supposed to be a snap pitch in the background to get my story out for the 50 people who I thought would listen to it but it’s really taken off and I’m so humbled by it. 

“I take it all the way back to 1988 when I was born in Kurdistan and the second Gulf War was starting and my parents had to leave. I think it’s such a poignant story to tell because history is repeating itself and it’s happening again - we’re seeing it with Isreal and Gaza, and there’s a lot of of opinions about refugees and blocking borders, and there was the General Election. You have these conversations among your family and friends and with your patients. 

“I think, kind of like aesthetics, there is a really negative stigma with refugees as well. But nobody would put their children unsafe on a lorry or a boat to flee if it wasn’t safer than where they were. Nobody wants to leave the comfort of their own home, they’re forced to do that. I wanted to tell a story with a happy ending because that was me 30 years ago and I’m here now, I’m safe and protected. I’m in a country that I love and I give back. I’m in a country that has given me so many opportunities as well.

“The first episode of the podcast is with my mum. I don’t think if I recorded that episode before I was a mum it would have been as hard hitting as it was now that I am. Because I look back at my childhood and it was wonderful, I had a really fun time, I always safe, I never felt like I was different in any way. It was only in high school when comments started coming from other children I thought ‘hold on I’m not from here and don’t fit in’. My mum and dad made me believe I was just a normal child and that’s what I say to my own children. Everything is normal and safe. 

“To potentially wake up tomorrow and have to leave with just the two children and what I can carry on my back is incredibly terrifying and I can’t imagine the strength my mum and dad must have had to do that. If you listen to the first episode you’ll hear it in more detail but my mum and dad also had to split into two cars. My mum and the children were in one and my father was in the other in the risk that if they were to get caught we could sacrifice my dad. 

“In 1989 when we were fleeing there were no mobile phones so my mum and dad just had to leave and they had a meeting point in Istanbul and my dad had to wait five days before he arrived. I’m crying through the full podcast because I just can’t believe that even happened, I can’t believe my mum had to experience that. That’s the drive that makes me want to be successful because I don’t want the suffering to be in vain.”