22/06/2026
This page used to sell toys, then COVID destroyed everything we built.
For those who've followed for years, you'll remember M&N Kidzstuff.
A small family business. Nothing glamorous. Just a family trying to build something of their own.
We put everything into it.
Our time.
Our savings.
Our hopes.
Then COVID arrived overnight.
Supply chains collapsed, costs spiralled, and like thousands of other small businessess we couldn't survive it.
But here's what nobody tells you about losing a business.
The money is painful. But it's not the worst part.
The worst part is the identity.
When you've spent years building something and it's gone, you don't just lose the business. You lose the version of yourself that believed it was possible.
Life wasn't giving us a break.
We were raising a large family, navigating hospital appointments, caring responsibilities. The weight of everyday life that never pauses just because you're struggling.
Then came losses that no parent should ever have to face.
There were moments I genuinely didn't know how to keep going.
Most people see a page.
They don't see the nights wondering how to rebuild.
They don't see the failures before the fresh start.
They don't see what it costs to try again.
Eventually something shifted.
The skills hadn't disappeared.
The determination hadn't disappeared.
The willingness to start again hadn't disappeared.
So I started learning.
Every night after the kids were in bed, I sat at the kitchen table teaching myself about artificial intelligence. No investors, no team, no budget, just curiosity and stubbornness.
That's how sparkai.org.uk was born.
An educational platform built for families like mine — AI tutors, lesson plans, workbooks and learning resources for children from early years through to GCSEs, A levels, National 5s and Highers.
Built by a parent, for parents.
We're still at the beginning, there's still a mountain of work ahead.
But for the first time in years, I'm genuinely excited about what's coming.
This page is changing.
Not into a sales page, into something more honest than that.
I'm going to share the journey. The wins, the hard days, the reality of building something from nothing, while raising a family, in Scotland, with no safety net.
If that's the kind of thing you want to follow stay with us.
This is just the start. 🚀
