Search is on for region’s heroines
SAMANTHA Payne broke new ground at last year’s West Women of the Year awards. She claimed the Most Innovative Woman title for her work with Open Bionics and we are on the lookout for this year’s noinations in that category – renamed the Most Inspirational Woman in STEM – and the rest of our 2019 awards.
The awards stretch across our sister titles – the Bath Chronicle, Bristol Post, Western Daily Press, Gloucester Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo – to celebrate the most inspiring stories from women across the South West.
We are looking for the women championing industry, charities, communities and sport.
A shortlist of 100 inspirational women will be drawn up with each name on this list being invited to a glamorous evening ceremony at the Passenger Shed in Bristol Temple Meads.
Samantha Payne is the co-owner of Bristol-based start-up Open Bionics with Joel Gibbard, developing low-cost bionic arms for amputees.
Open Bionics has worked closely with the NHS for two years under a product development contract with the joint goal of being able to offer these life-changing devices through clinics.
The team has sold devices in France and Spain with the goal of serving more European countries this year.
Open Bionics is also the first company to create multi-grip bionic hands small enough to fit children as young as nine years old.
Last year its Hero Arm received global attention as it was the world’s first medically certified, 3D printed bionic hand.
A partnership with Disney to allow Iron Man, Star Wars and Frozen covers for the arm followed.
The company is celebrating almost $6million from investors to continue their invaluable work.
She said: “This funding enables us to serve multiple international markets and we’re thrilled to finally be able to deliver bionic hands to amputees and people with limb differences in the USA later this year.
“We’re exceptionally excited to receive this support from such high calibre investors who not only offer financial backing but incredible experience in commercialisation, measuring impact, and engineering high performance hardware.”
» Nominate someone – or yourself – for an award at westwomen oftheyear.co.uk. » And follow our campaign on social media using the hashtag #westwomen.