Monthly Archives: November 2015
What a week !!
Where do I start?
I have had such a busy few days and just got back from Cardiff where I spoke at the TSA International conference to a lot of very important people from the medical and technology worlds and also met some politicians there too.
The weekend started on Friday when I got a nice surprise after school as the limb centre and the guys at Dorset Orthopedic (who make my prosthetics) had rushed my feet through so I had them for the conference. They look amazing and as you can see when I am next to Koby they look so real

Spot which ones are mine?
We had a final run through of our speech on Thursday and Friday and I started to get nervous about singing the song accapella – Runnin by Beyonce. Everything else was fine.
On Sunday we drove to Cardiff and got to The Celtic Manor a 5 star hotel at about 3pm,
we had time to meet our friends Lois & Joe and then had a swim before dinner in a posh restaurant. Early to bed as we had to be fresh for the speech on Monday.
Before you ask we were given special permission to miss school as this was such a big event and Dad said to School we would learn a lot from it. On Monday we woke up and had a swim after breakfast then we had to rush to get ready, not sure why as we were not speaking until 3.30pm but Dad wanted to check it all out.
The main hall where the speeches were is huge, we saw it the night before as it was being set up but this was amazing with all the lights and people in it. Not sure how many saw the talk but TSA said there were around 450 people there. We met Adrian and Patrick downstairs and spent the rest of the morning riding on the escalators in the hotel with Koby. Then we met the lady’s who made all this happen for us Nicola Wass and Alyson Scurfield who is the boss of TSA
The day went so slow but the longer it went on the more confident I felt about doing the speech and the song. We went into the hall about 45 mins before we were due to go live and did a sound check. I ran through the song and felt like it was right to do it.
Before long the hall was filling up and we were introduced by the minister Paul Burstow and then we were off.
We will post a video of the talk when we have it as TSA have videoed the whole thing and said they will share it.
After the talk we heard an interesting man Matthew Warnes who was in a terrible car accident and has rebuilt his life to help others through creating homes ready for those with disabilities.
Afterwards we were interviewed by Bob, Nicola’s husband and I was given a beautiful ring by Alyson with my birth stone in it!!
We had to leave then booooo !! Dad said we had to get back for school, Koby & I just wanted to stay and we loved it so much.
Thank you to everyone we met for treating us so special and we hope to see you all soon xx
TSA Conference Speech
I am looking forward to my speech at TSA conference next week at Celtic Manor in Cardiff to speak to 600 delegates about my life with prosthetics and my hopes and dreams for a faster way of making my prosthetics.
It really is a big honour to be asked to do this and I will be joined on stage by Adrian from Does Liverpool who will help me to explain the 3D printing process.
My Dad says I am on the advert to speak with some really big names. Hope all goes well but I will keep you updated here
The list of speakers – & ME !!
This week I am hoping to get my new prosthetics which I have been waiting for since April, my current ones are just about falling apart and are giving me blisters where they pinch my skin due to them being split. I hope the new ones fit as this is the 2nd attempt at making them and I fear a long period on crutches if these don’t work.
Fingers crossed xxxx
Prosthetic limbs soon to have sense of touch !!
This video and article (Thanks to Elaine) shows how smart skin a new technology adds the sense of touch, pressure, temperature & moisture to prosthetics.
Wow ! 3D printing skin cells and medication – 3d Bioprinters
The world of 3D printing just keeps gathering pace, check out this article about 3D printing cells and medicine
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/02/bioprinting-the-new-frontier-in-medicine-that-makes-human-tissue.html