You may well remember, back in the spring, we told you all about Henry and the super-lightweight crutches our Innovation Centre made for him.
The last time we met Henry (who is a huge Harry Potter fan), he was 9 and a ¼, but he’s now at that ‘magic’ 9 and ¾!
Henry has Cerebral Palsy and wanted to spend much more time out of his wheelchair and that’s when our Innovation Centre stepped in! The crutches they made for Henry back in March involved using some ‘space-age’ materials, which meant they were super-light but also super-strong.
The crutches were important for Henry to build up his stamina, particularly as he had his school sports day in the summer! Lara, Henry’s mum told us;
‘Henry took to his crutches so well. He would use them throughout the day at school, during physio and from getting from A to B. They really helped to build his stamina for his school sports day where he competed in his framer-runner. He was able to use it for over an hour and took part in archery, running and even hurdles!’
This was the first project of its kind carried out by our product design team, so when they had the chance to revisit and put what they learned into practice, they did just that! It wasn’t long before Lara received a call…
Introducing Crutches ‘Mk2’!
Ross Head, Product Design Manager at the Cerebra Innovation Centre tells us how they have improved the design of the original crutches and how Henry’s new ones are even better;
‘This set of crutches for Henry is a slight modification to the last set. Previously we were lucky enough to be helped by CBM (Centre of Batch Manufacture) within University Wales Trinity Saint David (where our Innovation Centre is also based). They manufactured some parts from titanium for us to make a strong, yet lightweight set of crutches. This time, however, we worked closely with them to help ‘lightweight’ the parts even more!
‘Due to the incredible strength-to-weight ratio of titanium, we were able to further reduce the weight of the parts, resulting in possibly the lightest and coolest, 3D printed titanium and carbon fibre crutches in the world!’
Henry has a fun-packed few months coming up, full of activities, so this is perfect timing. First up is a 100m race in his frame-runner, followed by a ski trip, before breaking out the frame-runner again to take part in a 5k race! This will be the furthest Henry has run and not only that, he’ll be chasing down a Paralympian!
You can see from the photos that Henry had a great time taking his new crutches for a test run and you can even watch him in action, below!
We can’t wait to find out how Henry gets on in his next events and we will be sure to keep you updated!
