Hello!
My name is Cassendra Doole and to get right down to it, I currently work in Product Development for Costa Coffee at Alghanim Industries, based in Kuwait, managing markets across Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. However, long before I found myself deep in menus, launches and training decks, I had already dipped my toes into quite a few different industries — and I still freelance in some of them because apparently, I never really learned how to sit still.
Right after I sat for my Advanced Level examinations, I joined a Bridal Salon and collaborated with several hotels in event management, mainly weddings. Somewhere in between fittings, flowers and frantic brides, I completed my Diploma in Multifaceted Journalism and soon after joined the Ceylon Today newspaper as a journalist.In less than a month after joining the CT team, I was given the opportunity to become the lead journalist covering the Pope’s visit to Sri Lanka in 2015, where I met and worked alongside journalists and reporters from around the world. Thanks to my slightly insane ability to multitask, I also freelanced as a writer for Roar Media, while later completing an internship at MTV/MBC as a news reporter for Yes FM and Legends.
Thanks to my slightly insane ability to multitask, I also freelanced as a writer for Roar Media, while later completing an internship at MTV/MBC as a news reporter for Yes FM and Legends. In 2016, I became the only English print media journalist to join then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on his trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum — an experience that still feels slightly unreal when I think about it.
After journalism, I transitioned into PR and joined National Development Bank PLC, where I handled internal communications, branding initiatives, staff engagement workshops and corporate hosting, while continuing to sharpen my skills in writing, public speaking and training facilitation.A few years (and very close to my heart), I collaborated with Men in Whites Navy Veterans, CENORA and Oceanlink Sea Services to launch an ocean-based e-magazine aimed at spreading awareness about marine conservation, ocean pollution and the importance of protecting marine life as a whole.
And somewhere along the way, I finally did the bravest thing I’ve ever done — I published my first book.
In 2024, I released my debut poetry collection, The Haunting of a Broken Heart, through Jam Fruit Tree Publications. Writing has always been my source of comfort, and this book was born out of years of turning pain into words and words into healing. The collection follows the five stages of grief and explores heartbreak not in its romanticised form, but in all its messy, painful and painfully honest reality. It was terrifying to put something so personal out into the world, but also incredibly healing.
I am currently working on a short story collection and hope to publish it by the end of this year — because apparently, I like to keep myself busy in every possible way.
I’m not a complete workaholic though. I still love to read — a lot — and I’m always up for a good binge-watch session. Supernatural, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Big Bang Theory, Stranger Things and It: Welcome to Derry are among my all-time favourites, and yes, I will absolutely rewatch them like it’s the first time.
I believe that every experience is meant to teach you something, that friends and family are the most important people you’ll ever have in your life, and that happiness should be felt fully — because sadness, no matter how heavy, never really lasts forever.
That is me, in a nutshell.
