MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
Designer Jo Tutchener-Sharp
JO TUTCHENER-SHARP, 40, was a fashion and beauty Pr before launching children’s clothing and interiors line Scamp & Dude. She lives in London with husband rob and their sons, Sonny and Jude.
IF THIS time las t year, someone had said to me ‘Y ou will nearly die of a brain haemorrhage’, I wouldn’t have believed I could cope.
A bus y w orking mother of tw o children, aged three and one, I firs t went to m y GP after a spasm in m y face. I told him I felt as though m y head was about to e xplode, and he said: ‘You are dangerously stressed.’
One evening, my right e ye would barely open. The GP sent me to hospital, but I didn’t belie ve it w as anything serious.
When the doctor said: ‘We’ve found a lump on y our brain’, all I could think was: ‘I can’t die, m y children need me’. I was terrified.
I’d had a br ain haemorrhage and needed a six-hour operation.
Waking up in intensiv e care after - wards was the most amazing feeling. The only thing I can compare it to is when I firs t met my children.
It was in hospital that I had m y light bulb moment. I worried about how my children w ere coping without me. Separation anxiety is hard on kids, and I wished there w as something that could make being apart easier for them. So I decided to design a collec tion of clothing and interiors to pro vide children with a sense of security when the y needed it most.
Our slogan is ‘ A superhero has m y back’, which reminds kids someone is watching over them at all times.
At the heart of the collec tion are two animal-shaped cuddly cushions, designed to sit on the child’s bed and watch over them while they sleep.
They are ‘Superhero Sleep Buddies’ — with a pocket where you can put a photo of the loved one they miss. For every Sleep Buddy sold, w e donate one to a vulnerable child in the UK.
Facing death has giv en me an overwhelming desire to do something with purpose. We delivered 200 Superhero Sleep Buddies to kids at Great Ormond S treet Hospital on Christmas E ve, and the response from parents was amazing.