Lorraine Boyle
Meet Lorraine Boyle, who runs Marsco Neurodiversity Support and Wellbeing, a Community Interest Company (CIC) based in the Cairngorms National Park.
What is your business/enterprise and what was your initial idea?
My business is called Marsco Neurodiversity Support and Wellbeing and the reason I wanted to do this is that so many families — children and adults — really struggle with being neurodivergent. There’s massive waiting lists for a diagnosis with the NHS, and in the meantime no support is offered to help them understand themselves. To be fair, even after a diagnosis not much is offered!
When I was in uni doing my counselling, that’s when I realised something wasn’t quite sitting right with me, and found out I had ADHD, and shortly after I realised I was also autistic. All my children are neurodivergent as well and it’s difficult, it’s challenging, but it’s so much easier now that I know, and have learnt tools and strategies. And I feel confident to advocate for my children at school now, and I never really had the confidence before. So it’s really positive.
How did you go about starting up?
My business started as a pilot project — offering one day a week to go into our local high school and do 1-1 coaching with the neurodivergent teenagers (I did a coaching qualification after I finished the counselling).
Because it’s only a small pilot project, I currently do 6 sessions per child across the academic year. It’s going really well, really smoothly. I’m able to spend time and personalise the coaching to each child which makes me quite unique, and also being neurodivergent myself makes a big difference as well.
At what point in your business journey did you contact GrowBiz and how do you feel about the support they provided?
I used to try and do everything myself, but through my own personal coaching and counselling over the last few years, I’ve realised that I need help sometimes. It’s not that I can’t do it, but I need help for my wellbeing. And I just don’t understand a lot about the third sector yet, so I did a Google search and GrowBiz came up. So helpful!
The support GrowBiz provided has been 100%. The way Alan helped me was amazing, I can’t fault it at all. I couldn’t have succeeded with my first funding application without his advice.
“The support GrowBiz provided has been 100%.”
What other support have you had along the way?
I have not met one individual in third sector who’s not happy to help me, who’s not pushing me forward, holding my hand, and really got the pompoms out for me!
Working in the third sector and leaving the corporate world has been the best decision for me because of this atmosphere, and it fits my values.
Voluntary Action in Badenoch & Strathspey (VABS) in particular has been really good, and IRL Education, who gave me lots information.
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far?
Hanging out with the teenagers — they’re incredible and I’m helping them to communicate effectively, so being able to sit down and help them advocate for themselves. It’s better that they have their own voice as early as possible, and to communicate their needs as early as possible, so they can go out into the big bad world. And that takes some stress off the parents as well.
Another big one is in my first questionnaire I ask them how much they know about neurodiversity and they usually say they know a lot, but then we do the session and I go into the different traits and how their brain’s working and they’ll share something with me and I’ll explain that might possibly be because of this part of the trait, and they’ll say, is that really thing? Because they’ve been told that they’re autistic, or have ADHD, but not all the different things that come under that umbrella. I love seeing the little lightbulb moments, because they’re feeling validated and they know there’s nothing wrong with them, which is nice.
I have one teenager who’d like to go round the schools with my support, to stand up and speak about what it means being neurodivergent, and we hope to gain him a qualification through this work. So that’s in the pipeline and I’m really looking forward to seeing how he progresses with that.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
The biggest lesson I’ve learnt so far is to believe in myself. I had imposter syndrome at first, I felt: who am I, I can’t do this, but I can do it! I’ve been doing it for years with my kids. So I can do it.
Do you have a top tip to pass on to other small businesses or self-employed people?
Reach out to someone first. There’s agencies out there, like GrowBiz and Business Gateway, that can help you and guide you and starting is hard. I underestimated how hard it was. I don’t regret it now but there were some moments early on when I wasn’t sure! So don’t think it’s going to be an easy ride, do research first, but it’s totally worth it.
What’s next for you (big or small)?
My next thing is to offer family coaching, because it starts in the family home, and also 1-1 coaching if needed. I’m trying to find funding for this. And I want to dedicate more of my time, allowing me to build an even better rapport with those I coach.
I’m also in the process of trying to get a collaboration model together with some other local business. I think collaborative work can be quite powerful.
Find out more: https://marscoadhd.co.uk/our-community-work