I went to Dragons' Den and found out that my son has a half-brother.

YoIt was a few months after the BBC showed my episode of The dragon's lair I got the call that changed my life. I had been working all night as I usually do and was checking my emails for the last time at 4am when I saw it. It was a message from a woman I didn’t know. “I know this is going to sound really weird,” Jess* wrote, “but I’ve seen your story and I think our kids have the same father.”

I immediately asked myself, “Am I delirious? Am I really tired right now?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. She said the name of my son’s father and that’s when I knew. It was true. But I still thought, how did she come to that conclusion? Could it be real? Is it a trick? The woman told me she had a three-year-old daughter. My son is 12 and had always wanted a sister. I was in shock, but I responded by saying, “Thank you so much.” We agreed to meet up.

I was 27 when I got pregnant by a man I had known for years. We had been friends since our teens, but I had been in a very difficult and abusive relationship with someone else. A few years after that ended, we spent more time together. I felt like it was meant to be this way. It happened so quickly and it just felt right for the first time in my life. I had never been in a relationship where I was treated properly.

But he started to show signs of being too dominant. He became obsessive, always needing to know where I was. I was working in nightclubs at the time and he was very jealous. He covered up his low self-esteem with a huge show of flashy cars and being “the man.” I saw the warning signs and left; I had learned my lesson. But it turned out that by that time I was already pregnant. At first he was happy and accompanied me to an ultrasound. But after two weeks, he changed completely. “You can’t have this baby,” he told me. “You have to have an abortion. I don’t want to be a father.”

I, however, wanted to keep the baby, so we cut ties and then my son was born. At the time I was also caring for my father, who had a stroke when I was 19. Both he and my toddler, who was potty training, were having trouble going to the bathroom, and what I really needed was some sort of portable toilet, which didn't seem to exist.

For years, I had the idea to invent something, but it never materialized. Until 2020, that is. I had spinal surgery just before lockdown and I remember wondering what I had always wanted to do: start this business. By then, my father had also passed away. I had to give it a try. I launched the product, which I called Whizzer, in 2021 with nothing but credit card debt and a social media account. Within a year, I was winning awards.

One day, I received a message through my website from a researcher to The dragon's lairThey said they found me on social media and liked the story behind the product. They asked me to apply for the program. The dragon's lair It's a very long process. I don't think people realize how long it is. They contacted me in February 2022 and I had to go through a lot of due diligence. You're never sure if you're going to make it to the next round and then all of a sudden you do.

In May I was asked to come and film the show a week or two in advance, at most. I went to Manchester and stayed in a hotel they had booked for me and spent the time getting ready.

I was feeling confident about my business, but everyone is scared of numbers and that was one of my biggest fears when it came to presenting the speech. I have ADHD, so my brain has trouble with that kind of stuff. I was also nervous because I was basically going to bring a toilet on the show. Would it become a joke? I had also talked about my mental health and my bipolar disorder. I didn’t want to become some kind of laughing stock.

Luckily, the reception was very good. Sales from the show saved my business and changed everything for me. Steven Bartlett and Sara Davies joined forces to invest in Kiddiwhizz. The show aired earlier this year and that’s when I started doing interviews. From there, an online group for single mothers called Frolo asked me to write a blog post about my experience. And it was this post that Jess* saw when she got in touch with me.

We met at the park while my son was playing soccer. She was very kind, but everyone had warned me to be careful. I had a lot of questions. When she read my story, she said the similarities immediately struck her. My son’s father had done the exact same thing to her. He had told Jess* that he wanted her to have an abortion and used my son as an example of a child he already had that he wasn’t caring for. He said there were even more of us.

If I hadn't done it The dragon's lair I would never have known. As soon as our kids met, they became obsessed with each other. We started seeing each other on weekends and our kids have stayed at each other's houses ever since. Even though the kids have a different ethnic mix, you can see the similarities, particularly the same eyes. If you saw them together, you'd assume they were siblings. Now my son picks up his half-sister from daycare whenever he's free, as we don't live far from each other. We have this amazing bond because of our shared experiences.

Although it has been difficult at times for me and my son, I look back at the life I ended up having and think that we are very lucky. We have overcome a lot and are who we are as a result of it.