From Chaos to Clarity: How Our Daughter’s Journey Inspired My Penelope

The Early Days: Lost in the Unknown

When your child is first diagnosed with something life-changing, it feels like the world stops moving — and yet, somehow, you have to keep going.

When Penelope was born, we had no idea the journey that lay ahead. We knew love — the kind that fills your lungs and makes you fight for every small milestone — but we didn’t yet know how much strength that love would demand.

Those first few months after her diagnosis were filled with questions. Every day felt like walking through fog, balancing appointments, therapies, and sleepless nights. As her seizures began, so did the endless note-taking — scraps of paper, late-night messages, and half-remembered moments we’d try to explain to doctors weeks later.

We were doing everything right, but it still felt like we were missing something.

Why We Started Tracking Everything

It began simply: a notebook by the bed, a phone timer for each seizure, scribbled notes about her sleep and mood.

We didn’t realise it at the time, but we were gathering the first data that would later help doctors spot connections we couldn’t see.

Patterns started to emerge. Poor sleep often led to seizures. Changes in routine affected her mood and energy levels. These were small insights — but to us, they were everything.

We began to imagine a better way to capture those moments — something that could make sense of the chaos.

Building My Penelope

My Penelope was born not out of business ambition, but from the chaos of those early years — a parent’s desperation to understand their child.

We wanted an app that could track mood, sleep, seizures, and activity, but more importantly, one that could connect the dots between them. A place where parents could see what might be triggering seizures, how medication was working, and how everyday patterns were shaping their child’s wellbeing.

As we developed My Penelope, we kept one goal in mind: to make life just a little easier for families who already have so much to carry.

We wanted it to be beautiful, simple, and built from love — because families like ours deserve tools that reflect their strength, not just their struggles.

Turning Pain into Purpose

Our daughter, Penelope, continues to teach us more than we could ever imagine.

Her resilience, her smile, and her unstoppable spirit are reminders that even in the hardest moments, there’s growth, laughter, and light.

What began as our survival tool became something much bigger — a way to help others find patterns, peace, and power in understanding their child’s journey.

Every tracker, every note, every report in My Penelope exists because of what she has shown us: that knowledge is empowerment, and that when parents understand their child’s world, they can advocate for them with confidence and compassion.

A Message to Other Parents

If you’ve just received a diagnosis — epilepsy, autism, cerebral palsy, or anything that makes your path feel uncertain — please know this: you are not alone.

You may not have all the answers now, but you will learn to navigate this world one step, one day, one moment at a time.

It’s okay to feel scared. It’s okay to feel tired. But don’t forget that you are the constant in your child’s world — their calm, their advocate, their home.

We built My Penelope for you — for every parent trying to make sense of the unknown, for every carer documenting sleepless nights, for every family learning that love is sometimes the greatest data point of all.

Together, We Track. We Understand. We Advocate.

Penelope’s story will always be at the heart of everything we do.

She is the “why” behind every tracker, every update, and every decision we make.

Through My Penelope, we hope to give families like ours the tools to not only record what’s happening, but to see what’s possible — a future where every parent has the insight and confidence to advocate for their child.

Because when we track, we understand. And when we understand, we can advocate — fiercely, fearlessly, and with love.

About My Penelope

My Penelope is a parent-designed SEND and epilepsy tracker app built to help families record and understand patterns in their child’s daily life — including seizures, sleep, mood, mobility, and activity. Visit www.mypenelope.co.uk to learn more or join our community.