To Avoid Surgery, She Created The Whole Hope

Hope Skouras was just 17 and a rising senior at Charlotte Latin School when she began to experience severe abdominal pain. She saw a range of specialists who tested her for acid reflux, ulcers, and celiac disease. “The last thing I was told was, if I got a colonoscopy, and it showed nothing, I would be sent to a psychiatrist,” she says. But that colonoscopy revealed Crohn’s disease, a chronic, inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract. 

Her gastroenterologist prescribed a medication called Remicade, and she came home from Wake Forest University every six to eight weeks to get her IV infusion. “It wasn’t until I graduated that it stopped working,” Skouras says. “I formed an antibody to it.” 

In 2012, she had another massive flare-up that required surgery to remove the diseased tissue in her intestine. It took a few years—and a new medication—to achieve full remission. She married her husband, Spyros, in 2014 and was able to have three healthy kids.  

But in 2021, after the birth of her third child, Skouras started showing symptoms of another flare-up. Her doctor noticed a narrowing of her intestine where she’d had her previous surgery. They changed her medication again and told her they’d keep evaluating her, but another surgery was inevitable. “That was unacceptable to me,” she says. “I thought, There has to be a different way.” 

Her father-in-law encouraged her to pursue a holistic route and connected her with a functional medicine doctor at Companion Health. “I was a stubborn Taurus, but I gave it a shot,” Skouras says. “The second I went in there, we talked about things no one had ever talked about—diet, nutrition, hormones.” She was assigned a health coach who overhauled her diet. Skouras gave up all gluten and dairy and began drinking a warm cup of lemon water every day. That simple morning ritual improved her symptoms almost immediately, and she became fascinated with the benefits of lemon water.

“My health coach said, ‘I think you’d be really good at this,’” Skouras says. “I thought, Why not? My kids are getting older. I’m going to get certified.” She became an integrative nutrition health coach and launched The Whole Hope on Instagram. One of her first posts was the lemon water recipe, which also includes ginger, turmeric, and honey. “Lemons are high in citric acid, which helps the body with detoxification,” Skouras says. “Ginger is great for digestive health, and turmeric is an anti-inflammatory. The honey adds a bit of sweetness but won’t spike your blood sugar. I recommend it on an empty stomach with warm water.”

Each packet comes with six swirls and can be purchased locally at Reid’s Fine Foods or online for $15.99.

Her followers loved this natural elixir, but for many, it added yet another task to the morning rush. “No one needs another step in their morning,” Skouras says, “so I became fixated on making it easier so no one could say they didn’t have time anymore.”

She developed a frozen, lemon slice-shaped swirl tablet with organic lemon juice, ginger, honey, and non-GMO turmeric to be dropped and dissolved in a cup of warm water. Her husband got in touch with Richard Reutter, his friend from business school who is CEO of Caroline’s Cakes. Reutter invited Skouras to their facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to learn about production and perfect her recipe. 

By January 2024, Skouras knew she had something, so she left health coaching to pursue The Whole Hope full time. She began selling the tablets through her website. Then a friend from church introduced her to Brave Broth founder Joanna Reule. Reule, too, was a Charlotte mom, and she’d created a line of popular bone broths sold at Reid’s Fine Foods. She connected Skouras to the team at Reid’s, and they placed an order the same week. “They haven’t stopped since,” Skouras says. “In January (2025), we doubled our sales. Now they’re placing orders a few times a month.”

Skouras has moved from her home kitchen to a commercial kitchen on Latrobe Drive, and she recently hired two women to help her part time. She’d like to keep growing the brand, but she’s in no rush. “I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for so many years, and I’ve never worked in the food industry, so I’m learning as I go,” she says. “But I have more flavors in my head that I can’t wait to get out there.”