Episode 3 The Big Life Fix with Simon Reeve

We're living in a new age of invention.

Brilliant brains are no longer just holed up

in leading university labs or research facilities.

Today, inventors are coming together

in technology hubs like this to design,

to help improve people's lives.

It's actually working. That's so cool!

For this series, we've brought together

seven of the UK's leading engineers, designers and computer programmers.

Ta-dah!

Going to make myself the guinea pig.

They'll use cutting-edge science and technology to build

life-changing solutions for people in desperate need.

I don't know who to ask...

Or where to go.

"In pain", "uncomfortable"...

From helping individuals who are seriously ill...

-RASPING COUGH

-Whoa!

..to solving issues affecting entire communities.

Someone's either going to get seriously injured and can't get aid,

or someone's going to die.

They'll attempt to tackle major problems that have

so far gone unsolved.

I think I've created something really new

and possibly revolutionary.

The potential of this is massive.

Fingers crossed nothing cracks or explodes.

This week, they will build life-saving equipment

for two brothers with cystic fibrosis.

Every time you blow, the red car accelerates.

I have never ever seen this before.

They'll help a young girl who has to wear

a protective helmet live a normal life.

I just trip over a lot and I can't stop.

And build technology to give a partially sighted mum

the freedom to enjoy the outdoors.

We're here!

'I'm Simon Reeve.

'Over the next six months, I'll be working with the team.'

If they succeed, they could change these people's lives

and the lives of many more.

SHE SHOUTS EXCITEDLY

-Ah!

-HE LAUGHS

This is the best thing that could ever happen to us.

Keep going, keep going.

Keep going to the end.

Our team's base is in east London.

Known as a maker space,

it's one of a national network of inventors' hubs,

crammed full of the latest technology.

It's from here that our seven leading inventors will

attempt to create fixes for people with nowhere else to turn.

I want to explore their lives. We want to discuss as a team

and work with them to build the right solution.

'Our experts are all leaders in their field.

'Engineers who worked at Dyson, and award-winning designers who

'have built everything from ambulances to earthquake sensors.'

Is it fair to say there is a technological revolution

underway at the moment?

Yes. I think we call it the maker revolution.

It's a great way to leverage, um, this energy that people have to

contribute, to donate their time and their skills to help a great cause.

Haiyan Zhang is a director of innovation at Microsoft Research.

She'll lead the first case, to help two boys with cystic fibrosis -

a debilitating disease that severely affects their breathing.

Every morning, mum Vicky is up at the crack of dawn to prepare

for their first treatment of the day.

-Hello. Welcome. Come on through.

-Thanks.

-Everything has to be sterilised every time you use it.

-Every time?

-And how often is it used?

-Well, they both have three nebulisers a day.

So, six times of sterilising.

-Do you spend your life cleaning and sterilising?

-I do, yeah.

Boiling pans of water.

I hear some stirring.

-Hi.

-'First to wake is her 13-year-old son, Morgan.'

He's like a little dog, aren't you?

Right, what happens now is Morgan starts his routine.

Cystic fibrosis, or CF, is the result of a faulty gene that

causes sticky mucus to gather in the lungs and digestive system.

-How does that taste?

-Disgusting.

Ooh! They should make better flavours.

Yeah.

'It makes it hard to breathe and increases the risk of infection.

'Morgan begins his day inhaling salt water vapour

'that helps to loosen the mucus.'

The salt flavour's not great, isn't it?

-A chocolate-flavoured nebuliser.

-Yes! I would do that.

Oh, there we go. That's finished, great.

Next, Vicky prepares 13 pills.

The first of one...

They're basically a pain because sometimes they

get stuck in my throat and it hurts for the rest of the day.

-So, literally a pain?

-Yeah.

So I do spend my life, it feels like, nagging.

Like, "It's time to do your nebuliser,

"it's time to do your tablets. Oh, it's time to do your physio."

-But by far the biggest chore...

-Come on, Morgan!

..is physiotherapy for his lungs.

It's a 30-minute exercise to loosen the mucus

so it's then easier to cough it up.

-RASPING COUGH

-Whoa!

Let's have that. You know, he's 12, he could do it by himself.

But, as you can see, it's just tedious.

He does everything he can to get out of it.

To add to the difficulty, Morgan has a condition called ADHD,

which means he has a short attention span and is quickly distracted.

HE STARTS HUMMING

We don't need noises. Keep going.

What kind of things do you entertain Morgan with?

We can't really have anything on cos he can't do two things at once.

-So then they just stare at the TV and they forget to blow.

-Oh, OK.

They have to do this for 30 minutes, three times a day.

-..two, three...

-Every day.

And when Morgan's done...

Wakey-wakey!

..Vicky has to repeat the whole process...

It's time for school.

HE GROANS

..with 16-year-old Aiden.

She's desperate for help.

-And how much do you like or dislike the physio?

-Dislike.

-Would you do it if Mum and Dad weren't hassling you into it?

-No.

-Even though you know it's really important?

-Yeah.

Aiden, are you going to come and sit over here?

-Or you can sit...

-HE GROANS

Where can you sit?

-Aiden, we're not using that, sweetie.

-God's sake.

Aiden has got autism, he doesn't understand the reason why

he's got to do it, he doesn't understand what CF means.

One, two, three, four, five...

-Why do you hate it?

-It's boring. Wastes time.

-Oh.

-Better stuff to do.

-What kind of better stuff?

-Play games.

-What kind of games?

-Fifa.

-THEY LAUGH

What's your role in the morning's proceedings, Simon?

I sort of take a back step from all the medication and physio,

just because Vicky's better with it.

So I take the role of feeding them up.

People with cystic fibrosis require up to 50% more calories a day

because mucus stops nutrients being absorbed into their gut.

-Am I your server?

-Yeah, thank you very much.

Currently, the average life expectancy of someone with

cystic fibrosis is around 40 years.

And without daily physio,

their quality of life is significantly worse.

Everything you do day-to-day, we try to make it a treasured memory,

because you just don't know what might happen in the future.

-Mum's morning is taken up cajoling Aidan and Morgan...

-Hello.

..whilst dad, Simon, sorts the other two kids.

Right, OK we're off.

You all right? And then it's off to school.

Vicky, I don't know how you do it with...

you know, you've four kids and...

Yeah, I think everybody says that, but I think you just do.

You kind of get what you're given and you deal with it.

It's not ideal. I wouldn't choose it.

But I wouldn't change the boys for the world.

At Aiden's school, he must exercise every day

to help improve his lung function.

Normal running, well done. That's good.

Wearing an altitude mask restricts my own oxygen intake

and simulates how Aiden feels when his lungs are infected.

Good, well done.

Off you go for 20 seconds now, keep working it, that's good. OK.

Well done, keep going. Try and keep your hands on your chest, Aiden.

Three, two, one, and rest up, gentlemen.

That's good, well done.

Oh, Jesus!

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one. And rest up, gentlemen.

Well done.

AIDEN LAUGHS

It's...

it's a window into a completely different world, actually.

It's way beyond unpleasant. It's frightening.

Is there anything more we take for granted in our bodies?

-So this gives me a sense of what it must be like.

-Yeah.

HE COUGHS Oh, Aidan, mate.

After a humbling day with the Coxhead family,

we leave them to begin yet another round of physio sessions.

What a life they live, my goodness!

I mean they're so loving,

so caring, so sharing.

-They're so, lovely, yeah.

-So open to us as well.

But facing really tricky challenges.

It's so complicated.

What's your thinking?

There are definitely ways we can make Vicky's life easier,

through just simple things like, how can we help her keep count?

And she needs to constantly remind them or nag them.

And then thinking about how can we motivate the boys to do that

programme, so how can we just improve those things,

those little things for her, maybe through digital technology?

The next case is seven-year-old Rosie.

She had brain surgery as a baby and now wears

a cumbersome medical helmet whenever she's awake.

She wants the team to invent something that will be less

visible and help her fit in with her friends.

The case will be led by Dr Zoe Laughlin.

I always wanted to make things,

I wanted to engage physically in the world and invent stuff.

Cos it's fundamentally all about interrogating the world

and going, "Why is that like that?

"And could it be done better and differently

"and with a bit more ingenuity?"

'She's a materials engineer and an artist who works with

'everything from precious metals, to porcelain and even space dust.'

-Hello!

-Hiya.

-Hi, Rosie.

-Are you Rosie?

'Today we've come to Stockton on Tees to meet Rosie and her mum Nat.'

Can we talk about what you've got on your head?

I just trip over a lot and I can't stop.

Do you trip or your legs give way underneath you?

They get a bit wobbly?

I just trip sometimes.

She was born at 26 weeks, so she was born pretty early.

And she had a bleed on her brain.

Because of that, she's now blind in the right eye.

She's got under-toned muscles as well and she just falls quite

-a lot, don't you?

-Will you show me your helmet?

Can you take it off for me so we can have a closer look?

-Can you manage?

-Let's have a look.

Does it get hot?

Sometimes when it's really sunny, it rubs on my head and...

it makes my head go all sore.

Look here, you can really see those two marks there,

where it rubs against the front of your head.

So have you been wearing a helmet ever since you could walk,

since you were a toddler?

Yeah. Always.

To learn more about what Rosie wants from her protective helmet,

Zoe asks her and her sisters to draw some designs.

We've all got to think about the most amazing helmet,

what would it have on it, what would it be like, OK?

-So can we put on whatever we want?

-Yeah, whatever you want.

As with any child, Rosie just wants to fit in with her friends.

I'm doing it in orange.

Permanent safety helmets are widely used by people with epilepsy

and brain injuries, but Rosie is very keen that hers is different.

Whoa, that's cool.

She's never been able to wear her hair on

a daily basis how she likes, in any kind of style she wants.

She'll ask me for a bun in her hair and I can't put a bun in her hair.

So you'd like something then that means that she can do her hair or

express herself through her hair?

I think she's probably outgrowing it now as well,

I think she needs something a bit... the next step up.

And have you got any thoughts about what that should be?

The only thing I can really say that she loves is music.

David Bowie and she's absolutely fanatical about him, like

really badly. Like just absolutely loves everything about him.

'Like most seven-year-olds,

'Rosie already has ideas on what her new helmet will be like.'

This is the helmet and it's got what?

What is special about that helmet?

It's got a microphone and it's got wings and cakes on it.

It's got a microphone and wings and cakes on it.

That is a pretty special helmet.

And it's got two light bulbs.

They were the four key things - lights, wings, music and cake.

Before we leave, Rosie is desperate to show us something.

Whoa!

Wow! You do love him, don't you?

What are your favourite pictures of him, then?

-I've got that in one of my magazines.

-Have you?

MUSIC: Modern Love by David Bowie

Yeah.

That is on full volume.

I have not had it this loud.

# And I never wave bye-bye

# But I try, I try... #

I've got some actions.

Go on, let's see them. Are you going to teach me?

-# Never going to fall for...

-Modern love

-# Walks beside me

-Modern love... #

I can't quite hear Rosie.

# Church on time. #

Back in London, Zoe and I feedback to the rest of the team.

Rosie really touched me. What a character!

Yeah, I really felt for her and I really wanted to think of

do the absolute best for her.

I mean, grown adults don't even like wearing bike helmets

cos they mess up their hair.

Imagine if you had to wear that all the time,

how it impacts on both your identity, but also just the comfort.

And as she said, it's itchy and it's hot and you can't run

around and I think we can really do something to help her.

The idea that it's not one helmet, it's potentially,

we're potentially designing a system for her to look nice.

You probably don't look like David Bowie everyday,

but you want to be able to look like David Bowie sometimes.

I'm really conscious with this that, you know,

this is obviously a medical device that's been designed as

a medical device and tested as one, and anything that we produce here

would need to be subjected to that same testing regime.

The same team have hit on a serious problem.

Testing any medical device can take years

to get the right certification.

Zoe and the team must find a quicker way to create the potentially

life-changing helmet for Rosie.

Haiyan has spent three months researching cystic fibrosis.

Talking to medical experts, chatting to mum Vicky...

I think the fix should really help you as well.

..and analysing every part of the boys' treatment.

She must juggle the Coxheads' case with her own newborn baby...

Someone's fallen asleep.

..and international travel for her work.

It's 6am in Seattle.

I was just thinking about the Coxheads.

But back in her lap in Cambridge, she hits on an idea.

How do we make CF physio more exciting for the boys?

And my solution is to turn physio into a video game.

And actually the controller for that video game is right here.

This is an Acappella.

It's an airway clearance device for cystic fibrosis.

The better quality of the breaths that the boys are breathing,

the higher the score that they might score in a video game.

She takes the idea to the inventors' hub.

That sounds like a very difficult thing,

a very expensive thing to create.

Cos these boys, surely they're going to be used to...

One of the big selling games,

they cost as much as a Hollywood movie to make, don't they?

You might have hit the nail on the head.

A game is a big, big deal these days, making a modern game.

Huge budgets, huge timescales.

What we're seeing with tablet games, with mobile games,

that you can create really compelling play experiences

-with very simple graphics.

-That's true, yeah.

Very simple game mechanics as well.

Could it be rich enough in content and activity to make it

have some sort of legacy for them?

Will it last, will they get bored with it within a week?

It just has to be better than lying on your side on your own

doing the physio, right? It doesn't have to be better than Call Of Duty.

We don't have to make the game.

I think we can engage a wider community and run a hackathon

where we bring together designers, programmers,

hardware, electrical engineers, they'll hack together a project.

And at the end of it, they actually have working prototypes.

Haiyan posts messages on social media and a few weeks later,

a 48-hour hackathon is underway.

Day one gets off to a good start with volunteers fuelled by pizza

and work goes on late into the night.

The next morning I come to see the progress.

Oh, wow.

Hey, Haiyan.

-Hello!

-Hello. Look at this.

-Welcome to our hackathon.

-This is very impressive.

-Yeah.

Where has this idea come from?

So, the hackathon's a kind of a recent invention and it's the

idea that people volunteer their time and their skills in

a very compressed timeframe.

And when you've got that 48 hours, that 24 hours compressed timeframe

-to get together and make something, you can really achieve a lot.

-Right.

They're volunteering their time to create video games,

using CF airway clearance devices that I've created.

-I haven't seen this. What have you come up with?

-Let me show you.

I really want to see. So this is something that you've developed?

Yes, exactly.

So this chip has a sensor on it, it's a pressure sensor.

And when I blow into it...

WHIRRING

..the air pressure that I'm producing

is being turned into digital signals

and those digital signals are triggering the lights on the board.

But it's also being transmitted onto my laptop,

so that I can use it as an input into an app or a video game.

But how would you use this then to control a game?

The breath propels them forward, make them run.

And the button allows them to jump,

kind of like if you've ever played Mario.

Is this is actually doable in the time you've got?

Um... Yes.

LAUGHTER

These guys are actually hacking a physical car racing set,

so that the airway clearance device is going to be helping the boys

-race cars in their living room or even outdoors.

-Wow!

The Coxhead boys would love this.

Working with the team are two of the UK's leading cystic fibrosis

physiotherapy experts - Professor Eleanor Main and Ammani Prasad.

I think it's the most interesting thing that's happened in airway

-clearance for a long time.

-Wow.

Actually airway clearance has always been the bugbear and to

see in 48 hours people suddenly making it possibly fun is just,

is just amazing.

And behind that then is just a whole other thing about what data

-we can collect.

-Exactly!

And as clinicians and researchers, what can we do with that data?

But this game isn't just a toy.

Hidden within it is technology that can store clinical research

on patient breathing.

If lots of CF sufferers play the games, they could create

a treasure trove of data about physio for cystic fibrosis -

the biggest, in fact, ever.

You can look at hundreds of people simultaneously over

a long-term, and that hasn't been possible.

I'm so glad that this could potentially

change physio research for you guys.

The fact that, you know, I can create something that might

improve the lives of a lot of CF sufferers, is just incredible to me.

After 48 hours of hard work, the hackathon draws to a close.

CHEERING

Haiyan has prototypes of games,

but there's still a lot of work to do.

Zoe is redesigning seven-year-old Rosie's bulky medical helmet.

-Today we've come to Rosie's school.

-Here she comes.

We want to know how her teacher feels about her helmet.

Do you feel more comfortable as her teacher knowing that she's got,

you know, quite a large bulky helmet on her head?

For definitely when she's walking around the classroom and

walking through school, she needs to have something to protect her.

The thing that concerns me a little bit is sometimes I look at her

and she just looks uncomfortable, like you can see that she's hot

and you think she's wearing that all of the time, all day long.

I can't imagine personally having a helmet on,

literally from the moment I wake up, until I go home at night.

Zoe goes to meet Dr Ting, Rosie's consultant.

He's looked after Rosie since birth

and through two major brain operations.

But now thinks she could reduce down how much she wears the helmet.

During the school time, during the bedtime,

of course I don't think she really needs it.

But, again, it's a comfort zone and the confidence factor,

which I think is important for Rosie.

So, do you envisage a time when she wouldn't need a helmet?

I do. The difficulty is nobody can tell when, I think,

she will be in a position to come off and when everybody is

surrounding her, will be also comfortable.

So, a less protective helmet that enabled her to transition

between helmet and no helmet, psychologically might be helpful?

That would be very useful for her, actually, yeah.

So it's clear, Rosie won't always needs a helmet.

Zoe knows she needs to create head protection that provides safety,

but crucially starts to wean Rosie off wearing a helmet altogether.

We've got some helmets,

and we've got one here that's actually pretty close

to the type that Rosie has.

A blue foam...

Really nothing very sophisticated.

It's almost like something, like wet suit material.

In the case of this, nothing more than a web, you know,

that attaches to the head.

But you know, there's a gap which provides some form of protection.

When you, you know, get a knock, it's going to make

your head shake around.

Whereas this will just absorb and be much softer and just provide

better cushioning, really.

We see these everywhere now.

We think a lot of people associate them with, I suppose,

with ludicrous health and safety.

What force can this withstand?

It's not a bowling ball!

Goodness. OK, this is a challenge now.

A bit harder.

I don't think I'm going to get much purchase on it.

Oh, look! There's a dent now.

-Bit of a dent.

-And a crack.

But, look, the head inside would be nice and safe.

A bit more purchase.

It's the foam which is doing all the protecting there.

We start to investigate protective headwear to examine the

different materials that are used.

Let's take that out there.

So there's our hard shell, like the crash helmet,

the builder's helmet has.

Now, look here's the polystyrene.

Similar to the bike helmet.

Look, standard polystyrene,

like packaging you'd get for a TV something.

'Then Zoe mixes up a non-Newtonian fluid,

'something you find in your kitchen cupboard.'

-A big bag of cornflour.

-Yep.

Want to get it to the sort of consistency of double cream.

Get your hands stuck in there.

Right, so actually this is pretty perfect consistency wise.

If you just put your hand in, it's soft and runny.

But if you punch it...

HARD THUD

That is astonishing!

Go on, pop your hand in.

No! What do you mean, pop my hand in?!

Just keep the hammer away.

I want to do the punching more.

Go on, you do a punch, just so you get your confidence up.

Fast release and you'll come away clean.

That's astonishing!

How is that possible, look!

SIMON LAUGHS

Yeah, that's good.

That's it.

That's... That's incredible!

So that is a liquid that will absorb energy and provide protection.

What's happening is it's those particles, the little tiny grains of

the flour, they're not dissolved, they're just suspended in the water.

And they normally just move over each other, nicely.

But if you give them energy, they can't get out of the way

quick enough, so actually are in effect locked together

and provide that protection.

It's this principle that Zoe now needs to turn into practical

head protection for Rosie.

Two cases are now underway.

And the team are about to begin their third.

They must find a solution for a partially sighted mum

who is scared to leave home with her children.

Ruby Steel will lead the case.

She's a top design strategist

and often the first port of call to decide

the direction the team will take.

Ruby, tell me a bit about your background.

I've done a lot of work with older people,

in particular my grandmother.

I think you are always inspired by things that you know.

One of the real handicaps for her was losing her sight.

She's now been classified as blind.

We've come to Woking to meet partially sighted mother of two,

Shamreen Hussain.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Shamreen, hello.

CHILDREN SHOUT EXCITEDLY

-Oh, my goodness, such excitement.

-LAUGHTER

Hello, gentlemen.

Hello.

That is very exciting.

In terms of what makes things particularly hard,

-are you able to tell us a little bit about that?

-Yeah.

I've got something which is called cone dystrophy, so it's...

it's the cone cells in the retina which is at the back of the eye,

which are damaged and I'm totally colour-blind.

-Can you see us now?

-Yeah.

And do you only see us or are we out of focus, am I in focus?

-I can't see fine details, and my fine vision is very weak.

-Right.

But inside, when a room is really bright, I struggle,

because I get a glare, so everything just becomes a blur.

'Her visual impairment makes everyday tasks

'like cooking a nightmare.'

What I'll do is I will use my hands to,

to know how far in I should be cutting.

Mind your thumb!

That was a nervous moment for me. I could see that thumb,

I kept wanting to pull it out of the way of the knife.

I've got a slight chill going through me

when I see you doing that.

That's why I tend to avoid cooking.

You try and stay out of the kitchen, you don't cook?

No, I don't cook. My husband does it all.

I've been in situations when guests have come, my brother-in-law

and my husband would do the joint cooking, and when they've come,

I do the serving so it looks like I've cooked.

-That's because of the pressure of...

-It's too much, explaining that I...

It's not accepted for me not to be able to cook

and not to be able to serve.

-So people genuinely don't know that you have a sight problem?

-No.

They know I have a sight problem. They don't understand what it means.

'Shamreen can overcome most things in the home, but outdoors,

'she struggles to cope.'

Hang on, hang on. Don't run out.

Now, what about obstacles on the road? Do you feel OK with...?

No, like manholes and stuff, we just trip over them.

-Have you fallen over in the street?

-Oh, yes.

-Have you?

-Yes.

-Have you hurt yourself?

-Many times.

-Many times? Really?

-Yeah.

'She doesn't want to use obvious visual aids like white sticks,

'guide dogs or support workers.

'She'd prefer something that keeps her impairment discreet.'

I feel quite vulnerable and very stressed.

My stress levels are quite high.

This feels like a much more difficult environment for you

to be in, isn't it?

Yup!

-I can feel you're getting stressed.

-Yeah.

-Are you all right?

-Yeah.

-Can you hold my hand? We're going to cross the road now.

-Take your time.

-There's no rush.

-Good boy. Good boy.

'Cone dystrophy is a hereditary disease

'and Shamreen's son Muham has the same condition.'

-Right, let's cross the road.

-OK.

-You're closing your eyes a lot more, aren't you?

-Yeah.

-Am I right in thinking you can see less now than...?

-Than before.

-Than before, than in the house?

-The road ahead is quite busy.

-All right.

That's one of the main roads and it's going to be very

difficult to cross.

So there's a car... A van coming from the right.

Can you see the van there? Do you want us to cross?

Yeah, so he's stopped. He must have like given you indication to go.

-So he probably waved his hand.

-He did, yeah.

-I don't see that.

-All I see is a stopped vehicle.

-Yeah.

Do you do things like go to the park with them?

It's not like an everyday thing.

It's not an every weekend thing.

It has to be pre-planned and I need to ask someone to drop me off

or come with me.

'On the way home,

'the dangers for Shamreen and her boys are all too apparent.'

-There's not a lot of room here, is there?

-No.

I wouldn't want to be dragging two boys along here.

'With Shamreen and the kids safely back home,

'we bring an end to a stressful afternoon.'

-It was quite distressing to see her like that.

-It was, I agree.

I really didn't want... I want to take her out of it straightaway.

Take her back into the house.

Take her back into the house, but then that in itself is very

telling because it just shows how trapped she is.

What will you do from here?

So, I need to go away

and digest all the information that we've got today.

I want to share everything with the rest of the team and get some

more input from the rest of their expertise.

I do think it would be really useful to do an audit of existing

products and technology, just to see how she reacts to them because...

-Products for visually impaired people and blind people?

-Exactly.

Just because it's a kind of fast track way to find out what works

and doesn't work for her.

Is the fix what you imagined, or is it more complicated?

It's a lot more complicated.

It affects every aspect of her life,

so how do you decide which one of those you want to make better?

Yeah.

250 miles away in Stockton-on-Tees, Zoe's been teaching Rosie

how to customise her helmets.

But Zoe never stops searching for a way to make the helmets as

lightweight and inconspicuous as possible.

-Inspiration comes from the most surprising places.

-Hiya!

So, I've just had a bath and I was in the bath and I had

a thought about Rosie and the crash helmets and the problem of foams,

like what it is you actually want from a foam.

You want it to be able to kind of collapse and absorb the energy,

but actually you want it to be able to spring back and recover,

so it's ready to, you know, receive another impact.

She begins investigating every foam in existence.

You wouldn't want that as a crash helmet.

She settles on a revolutionary new foam,

which has similar properties to cornflour.

Got this special type of material

that's really hi-tech,

used in top-end protective clothing,

so it's a kind of foam and

a liquid at the same time, it's soft and malleable, but... Aw!

If you bash it, it becomes more solid.

Then, on a night out, she has a moment of inventor's inspiration.

I was walking down the street and I've seen a man wearing a headband

and it made me think of Rosie's helmet being just a headband.

Look, can you see him over my shoulder?

He's got...

It's quite wide at the front and it goes down to

a narrow thing at the back.

Back at her workshop, Zoe begins working on hi-tech headbands

that will protect the weakest parts of the skull, around the temple.

It takes two months of prototype testing,

then she's ready to see what Rosie and her parents think.

What I've been looking at making here is actually looking at

making a range of headbands that use absolutely hi-tech internal

-materials, so they're soft, but actually...

-KNOCKS

-Yeah.

-Really robust and really absorb loads of energy.

I thought it would be interesting if we can try and essentially

make for Rosie objects that she can wear in the classroom,

or when you go for dinner.

Something that's not a helmet at all and then enables her to have

her own hair and give her that confidence to take the helmet off.

So, straight over your head, all the way down.

Or like that.

-So, then, that's much cooler.

-It is a lot cooler, isn't it?

It looks like a sports thing that goes on your forehead.

It is like a sports thing.

This is used in like Olympic ski suits

and the top-end motorcyclists' clothing.

People who ride horses use it in breast plates.

This is a part of a breastplate for a horse rider.

Things where you need flexibility, you need movement,

but you need protection as well.

So it's kind of come from the elite athletes.

As parents, how comfortable do you feel about this idea at all?

Perfectly comfortable cos it obviously

has got the protection on it as well.

It's about finding the appropriate object

-for the appropriate moment.

-Yeah.

When she's outside and running around, the helmet is appropriate,

but when she's sat at the desk at school, it's just too much.

-It really does get a look.

-Yeah, I think it's lovely.

I think it's a great idea cos, like you said,

it's just like what other people would wear, but it's got the

protection in it, which you can't really tell by looking at them.

Is it feeling comfortable now? Does it feel hot?

-Can I wear this one for school?

-You can take it to school, yeah.

You can wear it for school.

One's for inside and we want a different one for outside.

This has all been a revelation to us. We can't thank you enough.

And I think it will transform her life.

You think it will transform her life? It's as significant as that?

I really do.

To give her that confidence to learn to do her own hair and just

little things like that.

To see the benefit of the headbands,

Zoe's organised for Rosie to meet a top hairdresser.

Free from her helmet, Rosie can now have almost any hairstyle she wants.

-How would you describe today?

-I'm thinking.

-You're thinking. Good.

Serious question.

-The best day of my life, ever.

-Pardon?

The best day of my life, ever.

The best day of your life, ever?

So far! You never know what's to come. That's great.

-Pop it up. That's it.

-That's good.

-And we can even put the clip back in there.

-I want to look in the mirror.

-Hold on.

-I know.

-It looks good!

-Let's have a look.

-Shall we have a look in this mirror?

What do you think?

That's brilliant.

Give us a twirl.

Woohoo!

-Is that a happy face?

-Mm-hm.

Are you looking forward to showing friends at school?

It looks great and there's still protection there in that

delicate bit at the front.

-Yeah.

-You look fantastic.

-I want to show my mum and dad.

OK, you can show mum and dad.

'For six months, Zoe has researched and tested nearly every type

'of helmet and material that could protect Rosie.

'The hi-tech headband she's invented is a world first.

-'Back in Cornwall...'

-Aiden?

-Yeah?

-I need you to do this physio.

-Nah.

'..Vicky faces a constant battle to get her two sons to do daily

'physio for cystic fibrosis.'

-There's no point. There's no point.

-No point then! Fine!

-If that's the way you want to be.

-Aiden...

Fight number 325 about to commence.

-Come on. Listen...

-I'm not doing it!

-No!

-It needs to be done.

-I'm not!

I'll do it now!

Somehow, she manages six half-hour treatments every single day.

And then you can go back and play. All right?

Haiyan has been working round the clock on the video games

controller she hopes will transform the boys' monotonous treatment.

She's desperate to reduce the strain on Vicky.

Do you ever have moments where you're just like not...

-Just sort of exhausted?

-Always. Yeah.

I mean, I kind of obviously put on a brave face, but there are

loads of times I just don't want to have that fight with them again.

And I work myself up to it. OK, we're going to do physio now,

and that takes a lot of mental emotion to actually know that

I'm going to have a fight on my hands

and at what point do I want to pick that fight?

Seeing the amount of effort and the amount of emotional

investment you put in to the boys' exercises every day,

I think what we really need is something like a digital Vicky.

-Fantastic! Yeah, that's exactly what we need! I would love it.

-Yeah.

So that you don't nag the boys.

We can get digital Vicky to nag the boys and you can just sit

-back and relax and be their mum.

-Perfect. Yeah.

-That would just be amazing.

-Aw!

Obviously, making the boys happy and making it more engaging is great.

-Yeah.

-But actually yeah, if you can take some of that strain and time

and hours away from my day, then that would be a miracle.

The idea behind digital Vicky is to monitor the boys' daily physio,

but also track their fitness routine - a vital part of cystic

fibrosis therapy.

Digital Vicky should replace much of the monitoring that takes up

so much time in real life Vicky's day.

I brought along this for you.

Haiyan has fitness tracking devices she hopes will integrate with

the digital Vicky app.

They're taking a walk on the beach

to see what information the fitness trackers collect.

So, I've just uploaded the data from my fitness tracker and you

can see my heart rate's been up.

There's some information around heartbeat that might be important.

Useful. Yeah.

Because I think that differentiates between just regular walking

around and actually high impact.

If you're classing any exercise as physio then actually the

intensity needs to be really quite high and they need to make their

lungs work by huffing and puffing and you'd be able to see that.

I mean, is this something that when you take the boys to the

-hospital, to the physio, is that something...?

-They would love it.

-Really?

-They really would love it.

-Do you think the boys will feel like they're being surveilled?

-Watched.

Yeah. A little bit Big Brother?

Maybe, but I hope that they can see that it will make them more

-responsible and more independent. I think it's great.

-Great.

-It's very exciting.

-Oh, cool!

Haiyan goes away to build digital Vicky and finish the games

for the boys.

It's been three months since Ruby began researching Shamreen's case.

Today, they've got together to look at existing kitchen technology

for partially sighted people.

Right, we have got a selection of products for you

that we thought you might find useful when cooking.

These have all been designed for people with visual impairments,

so they've all got a kind of little trick or feature.

This is a talking labelling device, so it's supposed to be to help

you know what's in different packets that you bring home from the shops.

-You press record...

-BEEPS

Test.

And then, the idea is that when you touch it...

"Test."

OK, so we'll put one of the...

-BEEPS

-Chickpeas in water.

OK, now, if you touch that, it should work.

"Chickpeas in water."

That's quite neat, actually.

The pen labelling system could help Shamreen easily identify the

-ingredients in her cupboard.

-"Chopped tomatoes".

That's brilliant. I like that.

Rice.

"Rice".

Brilliant.

From talking scales to ID pens, Shamreen tries a range of kit.

It's all available to her through charities or the NHS,

but until now, Shamreen has always said she wants to cope on her own.

Oh, it vibrates as well.

I think it gives me that guarantee that I know I'm not going to

food poison my family. I can really depend on these products.

I really am quite surprised.

Right, I guess we want to go and taste the creation now.

You've got your confidence in the kitchen now.

Do you think that we can maybe push forward even further and find

more ways to give you what you really...

The real crux of the matter, which is quality time with your kids,

doing things that a mum would do. Do you feel...?

Do you feel happy with that, as a kind of...moving forward?

Definitely.

It's being a mum for my kids and not using my disability as an obstacle.

The simplest things, taking them to a park,

it should be something that I do with my eyes closed, let alone me

trying to keep them safe and cooped up inside and sometimes

they're just bouncing off walls because they just need that

fresh air and to be able to go out.

I do really want to be close to my children.

I think she's spent her whole life hiding her disability because

of the kind of social stigma around it.

We need to get her more confident and more independent when it

comes to spending time with her kids and taking them out.

Armed with a better insight into Shamreen's situation,

Ruby begins to plan how the team might help her.

How might we give her freedom to go out,

how might we better educate people in her network?

How might we make her take care of her children,

make her feel secure and safe walking down the road?

After discussions with the team, they come up with a solution.

Basically, the idea is an app that will...

It's effectively like the pen friend that we tried,

but it's like a kind of giant world version of that.

So, instead of labelling jars of food and all that kind of stuff,

it's like labelling things that she might trip over,

crossing roads, all that kind of stuff.

Over the next few weeks, the team help to develop an app,

using the existing global positioning system,

or GPS technology, that's built in to most smartphones.

This is basically like an app version of the pen for real life.

And instead of the little stickers, it's...

-It's using GPS.

-GPS.

-Exactly.

-Yeah.

-Ooh!

-There you go.

-I have a notification.

They build a rough prototype.

Ruby enlists the help of Lawrence, a visually impaired mobility expert,

who will test the GPS app for Shamreen.

I think maybe we should go out and give it a go.

Over the next few hours, Ruby, Lawrence,

and his support worker Naral, walk different routes around London.

OK, and speak it.

Point one.

-They lay down markers.

-Yeah, I guess here.

-Here?

Point two.

-If we go all the way up to the door, maybe?

-OK.

Point three.

OK.

And then retrace their steps, hoping the app will trigger an alert.

-Yep, should have been one around here.

-There it is.

-Oh, it has.

-Yep.

-Excellent.

-"Point three."

Oh, it think it's point three, but it... OK, OK.

-At least it's picking them up.

-Yeah.

OK, so I think we need to stop there.

I think there's quite a bit more work to do, debugging this,

and get it work accurately.

I think it's got a lot of potential, definitely.

I think it's going to have to be part of

someone's mobility experience really.

We need to assess what's causing the delay.

Is it the speed at which we're walking?

Is it the radius around the pin?

I'm beginning to realise why this hasn't been done before.

But if you can do it, if you can crack it,

it'll be really exciting. Really, really useful.

Lawrence has really helped work out what the ideal is,

in quite a lot of detail. So we know what we're shooting for.

It's just about whether we can actually do it or not because at the

end of the day, we are relying on satellites in outer space to

tell us whether there is something that's three metres in front of us.

I mean, it's really quite extraordinary

it's got this far really.

GPS doesn't work quite as well as Ruby had hoped, so the team

turn to mathematician and physicist Dr Sam Parkinson for help.

GPS isn't totally accurate.

The phone is going to know you're in an area,

it won't know exactly where you are.

It'll have a pretty good idea where you are, but it'll kind of say that

you're anywhere within a circle, within five metres of where you are.

And that's like on Google Maps or something like that. That's when...

-The circle grows.

-The big blue circle versus like the little pin.

And it tends to get better with time,

so like as GPS gets a fix, that gets smaller.

The app needs to trigger an alert when it's closer to a marker,

just three to five metres from an object,

rather than ten to 20 metres. Sounds simple,

but it requires complex computer code and algorithms.

We kind of recognised that a really important thing for Shamreen

was the ability to independently go out and do the things that

any mother would want to do, like take her kids park.

It won't totally replace something like a cane or a guide dog,

or something like that.

It's more a kind of aid memoire to help you use those kind of

-tools as well.

-Mm. Exciting.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Shamreen!

-Hi!

-How are you?

-So, Ruby has done a lot of work on your behalf.

-Can't wait.

I'm really sort of excited to try and give you something that

might enable you to do even more because I feel like you've

got that spirit already and it's just about giving you

something else to just kind of take it on and run with it, you know?

Anything's a bonus. Any little thing.

Even if it's one aspect of my needs that you've got, is a bonus to me.

What the app allows you to do is enable you to identify things along

the route that are going to cause a problem, low walls,

uneven pavement, lampposts...

-Trip hazards.

-Trip hazards.

And you have a little super small and discreet wireless

headphone that you put in your ear.

-Really small.

-That's tiny!

Yeah, so you put that in your ear, so it's really discreet.

-No-one else knows that it's there.

-It's pretty hi-tech.

It is very hi-tech.

Does that appeal to you?

Definitely. And the fact that it's small. It's quite discreet.

So this could be something magnificent...

-It gives me that independence.

-..that Ruby has created, eh?

-It sounds like you're going to invest...

-I am. I'm already like...

Oh, I can do this now! I just need the one go...

I love the fact you're coming up with lots of like ways that

you want to be able to test it.

I'm really excited to see how you kind of get on with it, really.

Thank you, Ruby, for giving this to me and I can't believe that

you've spent so much time and I really do appreciate this.

-It means a lot to me.

-You're getting me going now.

THEY LAUGH

We head out, so Shamreen can test her new app for the very first time.

-Where are we going?

-To the park!

That's right. We're going to the park.

The icon for recording a tag is in the bottom right hand corner there.

-Oh, OK.

-So, what you do is you hold this down. OK, go.

Top of White Rose Lane.

"Top of White Rose Lane."

There you go. Success.

-Yeah, so we can label the lamppost as one of the tags.

-OK.

-Let me have a look.

-Lamppost to the right-hand side.

-I know I need to stop and look for cars.

-Exactly. Go.

Drop kerb to Wildbank Court.

OK, and go.

Road island. Entrance to the park.

Having laid down all the markers,

it's time to see if Shamreen's new app actually works.

-Lamppost.

-There we go!

Oh, it's buzzing. "Manhole cover."

-Oh, manhole cover.

-It's the one up here.

-It's coming up. Yeah.

So, the idea is that it's a warning for all of these things,

so you've got a chance to kind of prepare.

It's telling me about the grass kerb coming up.

-Yay!

-To the left.

-Just ahead.

-Yeah.

-Brilliant.

-Does this feel like this could work?

I like the fact that it gives me a couple of minutes' warning

-before I hit the obstacle.

-It's a moment, isn't it?

-Yeah.

And it just feels like just the right amount of time.

I can focus on that area.

-Shamreen, how...?

-"Dropped kerb to Wildbank Court."

It's telling me it's the drop kerb coming up.

Brilliant!

It even looks as though you're approaching it

more confidently, Shamreen.

Yes, I know it's coming up.

So you've already heard that.

It's such a relief, saying,

"entrance to the park," you know it's coming.

-It's given me a guide. Brilliant.

-We're here!

-We have made it to the park!

-Yay!

-Yay!

-Yay!

-Yes!

-Yay!

-The park! No dogs allowed!

-Wow! That looks fun!

-Yeah.

-It worked!

-It did. It did work.

So, you've done a good job there.

-Done a really good job there.

-Oh, I'm really pleased.

It's a big potential for this, for me and I think other people,

even like sighted people can take advantage of this as well.

It's given me the independence that I wanted and not only just

the independence, the confidence.

The confidence I will be able to take my kids and enjoy going out

with my children and enjoy discovering new routes now.

I mean, it does feel a little bit like you're going to be able

to do things as a mum now that you haven't been able to do before.

Shamreen!

Thank you.

Haiyan's been working for six months to help two brothers

with cystic fibrosis...

-Aiden?

-Yeah.

-You need to do your physio.

-Nah.

..complete vital daily treatment...

It's impossible!

..and reduce the strain on their mum, Vicky.

But just as she finishes, one of the boys becomes seriously ill.

So, Morgan, he's been admitted to hospital today.

-He's got a lung infection that's settled in.

-Yeah.

I mean, it does really bring it home how serious the condition is,

doesn't it? He's got 50% of his lung capacity at the moment.

I'm a little bit worried about if he's up for trying out some

of the games that have been created.

-Fingers crossed.

-Yes.

It's time for them to see what you've done.

-Very good to see you.

-Hello, good to see you.

Ooh, look at that! OK.

So, what do we have? What do we have? What do we have?

We built a custom electronic piece and now,

when you blow into it, it will transmit the amount of

blowing into joystick movements that feed into a video game.

Sounds pretty impressive.

Yeah. Give it a hard blow.

Aiden gets a blue bear.

Good boy.

So, do we notice anything about our game characters?

You've tried to get them just like us.

One seems to have similar glasses to Morgan and one seems to have

similar glasses to Aiden.

Oh!

-He really does go!

-Don't forget to press the button to jump.

He does go quite far.

How do you know what to do already?

-So, Morgan's already done over ten breaths.

-Oh, OK.

-Blimey.

Just in these few minutes, without us really...

-You're surprised, Aiden?

-Yeah.

Without noticing.

-He's just done it without really realising and...

-Yeah.

-He's cracking on with them as well.

-And he's carrying on!

-So, how do we like the game?

-Good.

-I like it a lot.

-Out of ten, Morgan?

-Ten.

Wow!

Yay! Amazing!

-Aiden, how's it looking to you?

-At the minute, ten.

-Yes. Pretty good.

-I'm so happy.

-Thank you so, so much.

-I'm happy you like it, Morgan.

-Do you really like it, Morgan?

-Yeah, I do.

And this isn't all Haiyan has created.

Right, so has everybody got their devices? Give it a good breath.

So, you can see... Wow!

-So, there's Aiden's...

-Oh, my goodness! He's steaming on!

Every time...

So, you're the red car, and every time you do a good blow,

the red car accelerates.

It's not about the strength, it's about the length of the blow,

-so you've got to be able to blow for...

-Here he goes!

Come on, red!

Look at the concentration on his face. We don't ever get that.

-And it's working.

-COUGHING

And that coughing's what's needed for cystic fibrosis, isn't it?

That's loosening mucus.

-Come on, red!

-Come on, blue! Come on, Morgan! Come on!

This is the best thing that could ever happen for us because I just

know that the hardest thing for him to do is physio

and that is the only thing he needs to do to get better.

I'm going to be doing it probably every day now,

without Mum asking me to.

I'm so happy to see these boys so happy. It's phenomenal,

and they're really, really into it.

Normally, I say, get off your iPad and do your physio.

-Now I'll be saying get on it and do your physio.

-Success.

I don't know what to say.

'Morgan is back home within a few days.

'We meet up with the family at the local football club,

'where dad Simon is a coach.

'He's putting the kids through their paces to help demonstrate

'Haiyan's final gift to Vicky.'

I think meeting you and meeting your family,

what struck me the most was how much time and effort you put in to

holding this family together, so I wanted to create really

two fixes - one for the boys and one for you.

-It's a dashboard that's really about bringing your family together.

-Cool.

And it's the idea that as the boys are doing their exercises,

-you can actually log in and see their progress over time.

-OK.

Like a running live diary.

-Yeah, exactly.

-That's brilliant.

Flippin 'eck, Haiyan! That's very, very clever, isn't it?

For all those who will be diagnosed in the future, hopefully,

there are applications here that could really, really help them.

Yeah. I just wanted to say one thing,

which was what Morgan said to me when you guys left.

He didn't really know how to say it, but he said,

"This is actually a good part for cystic fibrosis, isn't it, Mum?

"Because normally, it's all really bad."

And for me, that was just the best thing he could ever, ever say.

Thanks, Vicky. Aw! That's amazing!

And our other inventions are also changing lives.

Shamreen is using her app every day to live life,

taking her kids to the park.

And Rosie's enjoying the freedom her hi-tech headband is now giving her.

Yay!