Today’s guest post is from Claudia Romero, who runs the startup company CAPR Style, which produces specially modified clothing for children with additional needs. She has been kind enough to tell us her story in this guest post.
Nobody can predict how life is going to turn out. You make thousands of plans. Some of them go smoothly, as you’d imagined, but then life throws something unexpected at you.
Nobody wants bad things happen but, when they do, it’s how you respond that matters. Do you sink or swim?
I decided to swim.
As a young woman, I dreamt that my life would unfold in the typical way. I would become a professional, work for a while then get married and start a family. After babies, I would return to work until retirement. Well everything was fine until I got married…no one told me that I would leave everything behind – my family and friends – to move to a completely different country and culture. However, I embraced the change, imagining that in a few years I would go back to my country. So I began to live in Scotland and to know this amazing place. Sure, I hated the weather but the warmth of the people made up for all the cold and the rain.
Then the kids started to come, everything was going fine and according to my well- laid plans. Then, when my third boy arrived the world that we had known suddenly fell apart. It was like a huge earthquake that shattered every aspect of our lives. He has a rare syndrome that makes him 100% dependant on others. Thanks to him I have learnt how to resuscitate someone. Learnt nursing skills and medical terms and how to deal with doctors, nurses, medical professionals and all sorts of people involved in his care. I learnt how to fight to get things that my son deserves. I learnt how to travel and to keep doing things with a severely disabled person and to let the world know that just because he is disabled doesn’t mean he has to stay at home or be in a hospice. We as a family fight for his rights.
Then he started to grow and dressing and changing him become difficult. I started to look for special clothing for him and for me as I was struggling with the everyday demands of changing a disabled child. However, I couldn’t find anything appealing so I asked a friend to modify some clothing for him. The feedback that I got from the nurses and school staff was amazing and many of them told me that I should brand it. So here we are and with the support of Entrepreneurial-SPARK this dream is coming true. The idea of solving a very real problem facing parents and carers and changing their kids’ lives gives me a huge sense of joy. We are going to bring style and dignity to all disabled kids in the UK – something that they absolutely deserve.
It has been a great adventure sometimes difficult but as any adventure I have decided to stand up, look forward and go do!