After cancer diagnosis, woman quits medical career to bake cookies now Oprah-approved

Kyri Mosley is a former medical professional turned entrepreneur. She is into baking, a profession she inherited from her grandmother while spending time with her in the kitchen. Today, her cookies, Kyri’s Kookies, rank amongst the best and even made it onto Oprah Winfrey’s Favorite Things list.

She told 11Alive that her journey in making cookies started by just watching her grandmother in the kitchen. “That’s how I got my beginning,” she noted. “Just watching.” 

Early this year, she launched her first brick-and-mortar location in Dallas, Georgia after decades of baking and battling divorce. According to Mosley, cookies evoked a special feeling of home.

“Cookies remind me of grandma’s baking,” she said. “In 2009, I had gone through a divorce,” Mosley told 11Alive. “I remember feeling really abandoned at the time. I asked my son, hey do you want to make cookies with me?”

Initially, Mosley made the cookies for free although she was urged by her 9-year-old son to start selling her creations. Although she eventually listened to her son, for her, the gifts were her thank yous, her encouragement to others, and comfort through life’s difficulties.

In 2019, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ewing Sarcoma. According to her, she had little belief in surviving it because it had spread so much but it was during that period that she decided to turn her baking into a business. 

The treatment for the cancer involved intense chemotherapy, at times nonstop 80-120 hours of infusion. “The trauma of the diagnosis propelled me to say, ‘This is your passion,'” she said. “This is what you love to do.”

She eventually quit her medical profession to start baking in shared Atlanta kitchen spaces.

“It’s loving. It’s all love,” her son Jordan, who once again bakes at her side in the kitchen, shared. “She’s trying to support everybody.”

Her cookies, which come in flavors like rich chocolate chunks and organic oats, have gained national attention, attracting hotel chains and local families. “Every time I think about it, I feel so humbled,” Mosley said. “I feel like God has just really blessed the giving side of it and allowed me to do what I love.”