Top Prize for Life-Saving Design
June 16, 2004 | Levent OZLER
Two former students have won a top design award after setting up a business to help treat sick babies.
Neil Tierney, 26, and Neil Farish, 25, founders of Edinburgh-based Lightweight Medical Ltd, were awarded the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur 2004 title.
The students met at the University of Glasgow and decided they could sell a design for intensive care equipment for premature and sick babies.
They beat 1,200 other entrants and 12 finalists to scoop a prize of £10,000.
Their company was set up in May 2003 designing and engineering cutting-edge medical products with the mission statement: "to help save lives and become a market success".
Judges at the final in London said that the pair had, in a remarkably short space of time, established themselves as intellectual leaders in their sector.
Mr Farish said he and Mr Tierney, both originally from Edinburgh, set up the company because "we realised that there was an awful lot of badly designed medical products out there and that is what we wanted to change".
He added: "We talk to medical staff, find out what the problems are and fix them. It's a really simple idea but nobody else does it."
more: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3811389.stm (68)
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