Founder of Onle Networking (an online business network) Kelly West, talked to us about her daughter Kennedy (16) who has global development delay (she has a cognitive age of 2-3) as well as about her business which she founded 5 years ago with her husband and her older daughter. 

 We discussed: 

•  How they love people which is why the business was founded (Kelly met her husband at networking!) 
• All about Kennedy the signs the family first saw in her and the challenges the family had and still face especially with the lack of support the family have received.  
• The experiences Kennedy had in mainstream school and how this currently looks for the family moving forward. 
• How Kennedy will never be able to live independently and how Kelly navigates this for the future, including how this and other sensitive topics (like death for example) can be communicated to Kennedy. 
• A behaviour (PBS) group that Kelly attended and how helpful she found it. 
• The challenges of going out and about with Kennedy and how Kelly deals with situations that arise. Using the sunflower lanyard. 
• The autistic spectrum and the huge difference between the ‘severity’ of how this affects different people.  
• How Kelly manages the demands of the business alongside the needs of Kennedy and how exhausting it can be day to day. 
• How Kelly does (or doesn’t) look after herself...and how she is OK with that. 
• The positive support networks that Kelly would recommend and how she also is very open to having conversations with people in the same kind of situation.  

Kelly’s business – OnleNetworking 

Linked in - @KellyWest 

Instagram - @bespokefamily / Facebook - @bespokefamily  

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations    

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This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative