Southlander creates anti-snoring device
Southland-born Frances Anderson has invented a device to prevent people snoring.
When Anderson was at boarding school in Southland she was told she was a snorer, which is something she had always felt embarrassed about.
After failed attempts at fixing the issue through invasive surgery, she took matters into her own hands and invented a sleep positioner called ‘‘Patney’’, which opens up the airways.
‘‘It’s more of a social thing. We’d go away with friends and people would hear me snoring, so my husband would take the blame for me,’’ Anderson said. After she told her friends about the product, she realised it could help others. ‘‘I had friends asking if they could have one.’’
This led her to replicate her original design. She used her own money to import products and created a mould for production.
This was something she described as a difficult journey.
Anderson was particularly surprised with the number of females interested in the product.
She thinks because she is female ‘‘others are able to relate’’.
The work has paid off and she has said ‘‘it’s nice getting the positive comments back’’.
‘‘I’m not going to sit here and say that the success results are 100 per cent but they are sitting around 89 per cent, which is really good.’’
The product is available only in New Zealand, and Anderson was hoping to go global with it shortly.
She was also looking to expand the business and was using customer feedback to research this.