About Kate
Kate has been part of the LYEONS journey since some of our earliest user studies, generously sharing her experiences through conversations, diary entries and regular feedback over the past two years. A working mum, Kate lives with anxiety, panic attacks and claustrophobia, experiences that can make everyday situations such as busy shops, queues, unfamiliar places and travelling feel far more challenging than they might appear to others.
Throughout her time using LYEONS Heart, Kate documented not only the moments when she reached for the device, but also the thoughts, feelings and decisions that surrounded them. Her diary offers a thoughtful and deeply personal insight into how anxiety can quietly shape everyday life, and how confidence can gradually grow through repeated experiences over time. Her reflections continue to shape the way we develop LYEONS Heart and understand what meaningful support looks like outside the laboratory.
A note on privacy
To protect her privacy, “Kate” is a pseudonym. She kindly agreed to share her experiences to help us better understand how people use LYEONS Heart in everyday life and to support our ongoing learning as we continue to develop the device. While her name has been changed, the reflections, diary entries and experiences shared throughout this article remain her own.
A note on this story
This article shares Kate’s personal experiences while using an early LYEONS Heart as part of an exploratory user evaluation. The reflections, diary entries and quotations describe her own lived experience and should not be interpreted as evidence of therapeutic benefit or clinical effectiveness.
LYEONS Heart is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition. Individual experiences will naturally differ, and this story is shared to help us better understand how people choose to use LYEONS Heart in everyday life as we continue to develop the technology.
“I just want to travel with my daughter.”
When we first met Kate, much of our conversation was about family. She spoke about her daughter, the memories she wanted to make with her, and the places she hoped they might one day visit together. One of the things she wished she could do was travel with her daughter, to experience the kind of family holiday that so many parents look forward to.
As we talked, the conversation naturally moved to everything that had to happen before a trip could even be imagined. Kate described how busy places, queues, unfamiliar surroundings, noise and not knowing where the exits were could quickly become overwhelming. Travelling itself wasn’t the only challenge. It was everything that surrounded it.
Her story resonated with all of us. Our team understands, either through our own experiences or those of people close to us, how anxiety can quietly limit where someone feels able to go. We also know that there are very few options available that people can simply take with them into everyday life.
That conversation marked the beginning of our journey together. Kate was keen to work alongside us as LYEONS Heart continued to evolve, taking one of our early prototypes into her everyday life and sharing her experiences with us along the way. She used HEART in the moments that felt right for her, and every conversation, message and reflection helped us better understand how it fitted naturally into everyday life.
Learning to use HEART in ordinary places
Walking into IKEA can feel like a small adventure. There are shortcuts to find, arrows to follow and endless rooms to wander through. Families browse together, children race ahead and it’s easy to lose track of time as you move from one display to the next.
For someone living with anxiety or claustrophobia, the experience can feel very different.
The bright lighting, busy walkways, constant background noise and maze-like layout can quickly become overwhelming. Rather than wondering which sofa to choose, someone may be wondering where the nearest exit is or how quickly they could leave if they needed to.
This was one of the first places Kate chose to take LYEONS Heart.
She told us she had never managed to walk very far into the store because of her claustrophobia and the overwhelming feeling of being trapped.
The store was relatively quiet, and with HEART in her hand she challenged herself to walk a little further than she ever had before. Afterwards she wrote,
“I walked… several attempts of course… further and further… I was scared. I was nervous. All the time I held onto HEART.”
She paused whenever she needed to, reminding herself, “I am safe,” before continuing. Eventually, she reached the department she had set herself as a goal.
“I just wanted to say I MADE it… I never ever thought I could do it.”
It wasn’t that IKEA had suddenly become quiet or predictable. What had changed was that Kate had found something familiar to return to while moving through an environment that had once felt impossible.
When having HEART nearby became reassuring
A few days later, Kate wrote about going for a walk with her neighbours one evening. Although it was an area she knew well and drove through regularly, being further from home after dark brought familiar worries. She wondered what would happen if she had a panic attack or struggled to catch her breath.
This time, HEART came with her.
She kept it in her pocket, moving it between her palm and thumb as she walked, feeling the familiar rhythm beneath her fingers. Afterwards she wrote that simply having HEART with her gave her “reassurance and comfort.”
Reading her reflections over time, it was lovely to see HEART becoming part of her everyday routine. It wasn’t something she only reached for when anxiety was already overwhelming. Increasingly, it was something she chose to take with her before stepping into situations she knew she might find challenging.
Finding quiet inside busy environments
Kate often used HEART when the world around her felt too loud. In IKEA, she placed it against her ear to block out store announcements, babies crying and people chatting. During a later family trip, she did the same in a crowded buffet when the noise and movement became overwhelming.
She wrote that listening to the heartbeat felt different from only holding it. At one point she said it felt “much better than just holding” and that she loved the gentle thumping against her ear. Later, after travelling, she wrote that she wished there could be an “earphone HEART” so she could hear the beat while also feeling it.
That feedback became very practical for us. Kate was not only asking for calm. She was showing us how sound, touch and discretion mattered in real situations, especially when someone is surrounded by noise but still wants support that feels private and usable.
The first bigger journey
When Kate later travelled with her family, her diary changed in scale. The situations became bigger, but the pattern was familiar. She packed medication, travel sickness tablets and HEART. She worried about the car journey, traffic, queues, the gangway, the ship, the buffet, the lift and being somewhere unfamiliar.
On the way, when the children became restless in traffic, she got HEART out and held it in her palm. When the gangway felt narrow and claustrophobic, she held onto HEART and coached herself through it. When the ship entrance felt busy with people, lights and music, she paused and kept holding it. When the buffet became too much, she found a table, placed HEART against her ear and later found fresh air before going back inside.
It wasn’t that these experiences suddenly became easy. Rather, confidence seemed to grow quietly over time. One small step led to another, and gradually the things that once felt impossible began to feel possible.
By the end of that trip, she wrote that a dream of twenty years had come true. She had travelled abroad with her husband and daughter. She had taken the gangway, the lift, the shuttle bus, the taxi and explored somewhere unfamiliar. HEART had been part of many of those moments, sometimes in her hand, sometimes against her ear, sometimes simply nearby.
How one experience helped the next
A few days after returning, Kate wrote before a work meeting. She felt anxious and slightly inadequate, but the way she spoke to herself had shifted. She reminded herself to focus on what she had achieved. She wrote, “You’ve made it Brugge! 20 years! The next 30 mins or even an hour is NOTHING!”
That line feels very Kate. Warm, funny, direct and encouraging herself through the next thing in front of her.
She held HEART before the meeting, and afterwards wrote that it went well and “wasn’t that bad.” It was a small work moment compared with travelling abroad, but her own recent experience had become something she could draw from. She had evidence now. She had done difficult things before.
From hoping to travel to helping shape LYEONS
When we first met Kate, she told us that one of her biggest wishes was to travel with her daughter. At the time, it felt like a dream that came with many uncertainties. Busy stations, airports, unfamiliar places and crowds all felt like barriers long before the holiday itself could begin.
A couple of years later, our phone lit up with photographs from Disneyland Paris.
Seeing Kate and her family there together brought us straight back to that very first conversation. Even more lovely was hearing that they were already talking about going back again.
Over the years, Kate has continued to keep in touch with us. Sometimes it’s a message after using HEART during a job interview. Sometimes it’s a family day out, a trip to London or a holiday abroad. Other times it’s simply an idea she thinks might make HEART even better.
That has always been one of the most special parts of working with Kate.
She never saw herself as someone testing a product. She saw herself as helping to shape something that might one day support other people facing similar challenges. Every piece of feedback, whether something she loved or something she thought could be improved, helped us understand a little more about how LYEONS Heart fits into everyday life.
Looking back, that’s what true co-development has meant to us.
Not designing a product for people, but developing it alongside them.
Kate’s experiences have influenced conversations about wearability, sound, comfort and how HEART is used in real situations. Just as importantly, she has reminded us why listening matters. The most valuable ideas haven’t always come from the laboratory. Many have come from honest conversations, thoughtful messages and the willingness of people like Kate to share both the moments that worked well and the moments that didn’t.
We often say that LYEONS Heart has been shaped by the people who use it.
Kate is one of those people.
We’re incredibly grateful that she continues to be part of the journey, and every time another message arrives from her, we’re reminded that innovation is rarely built in isolation. It’s built together.
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