A big boost for research into making bionic limbs
Masons give £92k to ‘ground-breaking’ prosthetics project
A MEDICAL research centre at Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood has been given £92,000 to fund its pioneering work on bionic limbs.
The Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust (RAFT) was given the money by the Freemasons, whose members were polled for a charity to receive a share of the Masonic Samaritan Fund Silver Jubilee Research cash.
RAFT’s project is one of 13 medical research studies the Masonic Samaritan Fund is supporting this year with grants totalling £1.125million.
The grant RAFT to developing will help
continue technology that will enable existing and future upper limb prosthetics to work as effectively as the human arm.
Leonor Stjepic, chief executive of RAFT said: “This commitment from the MSF will be lifechanging for RAFT’s research and for those benefitting from it in the future. It’s an important acknowledgement of our ground-breaking work.”
And the group’s chief scientific officer, Dr Lilian Hook, added: “We are forging a course of medical research that will one day lead to someone with a prosthetic limb forgetting that they even have one.”
The technology being developed is intended to remove the need for straps and harnesses to keep the prosthetic arm in place.
Electrodes are directly attached to muscle tissue under the skin, resulting in a prosthetic arm that works intuitively, is comfortable, easy to fit and practical.
RAFT’s goal
is
for individual patients to feel as though their replacement arm feels akin to their own body.
John Briggs, on behalf of the Masonic Province of Middlesex, said: “We are delighted to be able to present the £92,000 grant to RAFT’s research team. RAFT is an innovative medical research charity and a well-known local cause which Freemasons are committed to supporting.”