my LIGHTBULB MOMENT

Time seems to slow down; your body temperatures rockets; your eyes widen as your head twists from one side to the other. Suddenly, a glimpse of a dark ponytail bobbing over a yellow raincoat, and you dash forward to grab their tiny hand in yours. Speak to any parent of a child over about aged three, and they will have their own tale of the heart-stopping moment they realised they had lost sight of their child in a crowded shop, a foreign airport or on a busy street.

For Putney High School alumna Milly Stedman that moment happened at a packed Christmas market, when she lost sight of both her small children as they moved through the crowd. The experience, so terrifying at the time, inspired Milly to look for something that could help prevent this happening again in the future, but there was nothing on the market and she decided to come up with a solution that would benefit not just her but all parents of young children.

Working with her financial advisor husband, Alex, Milly has launched the Adiona wristband, embedded with an NFC or 'near field communication' chip. This chip is the same type used for contactless payments in credit or debit cards, or smartphones. By holding a smartphone against the wristband, a person who has found a missing child can bring up the parent or guardian’s photos, phone numbers, any medical conditions the child might have, as well as medication they might need in an emergency.

Milly explains, "The parent or guardian pre-loads their unique profile URL with the relevant details necessary to reunite them with their child if they were separated. This means that when the NFC chip is accessed by a smartphone, by holding it against the band, as you would with mobile payments, the user can call the parents or carers, share their location and also has the tools to support the child while they wait for their parent - if they are scared of dogs, or non-verbal, this could be included. When the person who finds the child scans the band, they are prompted to share their location with the parent. So, the parent gets a text message saying your child has been found and this is where they are. It means that the adult doesn't need to move the child to another location to try and find parents, which a man, in particular, might be reluctant to do.”

She has faced criticism from those who feel that parents should not be relying on technology to keep their children safe. She explains, “I've read comments from people saying, ‘Well, if these parents weren't looking at their phones and were keeping an eye on their children...’. But even if you’ve got eyes in the back of your head, what if you've got more than one child? If you've got two and they're going in opposite directions, or one's asking a question and the other one sees an opportunity to head over to the slide, you will have moments when you don’t know where they are.”

After leaving Putney High School, Milly studied English and Theatre Studies at university before starting work with an events and advertising company in London. After a year spent travelling, she moved to Kent, and for her day job currently works as an estate agent. Was she daunted by the thought of entering the world of product development and technology?

“If anything, the fact that I knew relatively little made me fearless,” she laughs. “We had to find a manufacturer in China who could make the bands with the chip in them, bring them over here and then find a distributor who could hold them for us. And when an order came through, join up our sales capability to them so they get the right band and they can programme it so that they know that one's gone out. It took a lot longer than we thought it was going to be. So the whole process from the beginning of thinking about it to launch was about nine months.”

Does Milly have any words of advice to offer any other GDST alumnae with a business itch they are longing to scratch?

“It’s all about making sure that you've got people you can work with, who are on the same page as you are. For us, it was important to find a manufacturer who communicates well and consistently, and listens to what we've asked for. In the beginning we found we were being very specific about what we were asking for, and then they would come back with something that wasn't quite right. We also got our fingers burnt by someone who was building a website for us and just didn't do any of it. So we've had to learn a lot of that ourselves. And actually, we've saved quite a lot by doing it ourselves.”

Milly’s own children now wear the wristbands on holiday and on family days out, which gives her the peace of mind to feel that she would be quickly reunited if they were to get separated again. The £19.99 SmartBand comes in several different colours and is available at Adiona.shop.

NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS' DR ELLIE CANNON