Andrew Whitelaw is Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Medicine in the University of Bristol. At the age of seven he was shocked to meet a girl his own age who could not walk or talk because of severe cerebral palsy. He tells, from his own experience, how it became possible to investigate and image the brain of newborn babies, to understand the different ways that babies brains can be damaged and to develop treatments to prevent injury or help the brain to recover. He describes how many dedicated colleagues persevered with research despite setbacks and failures.