Young Inventor from Newhaven wins national Young Innovator Award for medical footrest design

Peter Griffen, 24, joined 63 other young people aged 18 to 30 who were recognised by Innovate UK for their great business ideas and having the potential to become successful entrepreneurs.

Peter, originally from Macclesfield, will benefit from a £5,000 grant, one-on-one business coaching and an allowance to cover living costs.

The young inventor has designed and developed a fully adjustable footstool for people with Edema - a swelling in the leg which is common in cancer and post-op patients - in response to a request by staff at Royal Brompton Hospital.

The 24-year-old said: “I was extremely surprised to win because I sent the application in several months earlier. I was not expecting anything back but i thought I had done all this work for my degree's major project. It went really well and I was really pleased with it. So, I had wanted to take it further because it was going to be difficult to fund it all myself.

“I got the email on a Saturday morning in August and I was over the moon. It was extremely exciting and slightly daunting. It's felt really great to have the project validated in a different way by a group of people who thought they could turn it into a business and take it further."

Peter moved to Newhaven in November, having just graduated from London Brunel University with a Product Design BSc.

While at university, he applied to work on his award-winning project, after staff members at Royal Brompton Hospital in London were finding patients with lower-leg Edema needed a better footrest then the ones provided.

The ones currently being used in the hospital were not suitable for patients and were extremely difficult for staff to use, making patients' conditions slightly worse or showing no improvements at all.

Peter said: “Since September 2020, I have worked on this task non-stop. The idea for the foot stool is you can adjust the height of it and the angle of where you rest your feet independently. I was trying to make it comfortable for patients of all body sizes, sitting in any position, in any chair.

"It should be really easy and stress-free for the staff to use everyday. The problem I was trying to address was how do we encourage people to use their assisted devices in their work, their home, their social lives, as well as in hospitals and in care home settings. This was a challenge as a lot of people don't want to associate with these devices or associate it with part of their identity.”

The first full prototype was seen as Peter’s end of degree show in May 2021.

Due to the large number of clinical requirements, the device is not currently in hospitals, but Peter is working on the next prototype that he hopes can go into medical institutions this year for staff to evaluate.

Peter said: “I'm fascinated by products that have the ability and opportunity to change people’s lives in a meaningful way and so to me the obvious way to do that is to engage in medical devices and products that are helping people get better. I’ve worked in high-end furniture places and that is all great. But i want to make products which actively help people in a meaningful way and will make a difference to their lives.

“My personal ambition is to pursue this as far as it will go and try to make the best medical footrest that I can or that I am able to with the skills I have. As well as using the network of contacts I'm making or already have. "

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