Our Journey — Before we had answers.
We are a family of five, raising three children. Our middle child, Penny, lives with complex additional needs including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism and severe sleep difficulties.
Like many parents, we knew something wasn’t right long before we had clear answers. There were sleepless nights, behaviours that didn’t make sense, physical differences that were easy for others to dismiss, and a growing sense that we were constantly having to explain and justify our concerns.
We were living it every day, but without evidence, our experiences often felt invisible.
Life with complex needs
Life with additional needs doesn’t exist in neat appointments or isolated diagnoses. It’s the way poor sleep affects seizures. How seizures impact mobility. How fatigue feeds into behaviour and emotional regulation.
It’s also the constant pressure placed on parents to remember everything — how often something happens, how long it lasts, what changed, what made it worse — usually while exhausted, overwhelmed and already carrying far more than most people realise.
We found ourselves spending more time trying to prove what was happening than actually being supported through it.
Why we built My Penelope
My Penelope was created because we needed a simple, honest way to track real life — not just what happens in a clinic.
We wanted a tool that helped parents record patterns over time, without medical jargon or unrealistic expectations. Something that could support conversations with clinicians, schools and services, and give parents back a small sense of control in a system that often feels stacked against them.
This app wasn’t designed to replace professionals. It was designed to help families be heard.
Everything in My Penelope has been shaped by lived experience, and built with dignity, privacy and practicality at its core.
My Penelope is now available on iOS and Android.
Built by parents. Designed for real life.
