Smile of the week

This is my favourite story from last week. In the midst of all the terrible events happening across the world, and the almost palpable darkness that seems to have become the daily fodder in the news : an inspirational story. The picture is that of Patrick Joyce who has just won the Hackaday Awards prize for 2015, alongside his friends Steve Evans and David Hopkinson. Both Patrick and Steve live with Motor-Neurone Disease (MND). MND is a chronic neuro-degenerative disease which eventually results in tetraplegia. The 3 men won the prize for inventing a machine which could be retro-fitted onto existing wheelchairs and computers for paralysed patients. The beauty of their invention is that it can be controlled with eye movements and they have given it the totally excellent name ‘Eyedrivomatic’ which could be straight out of a Marvel comic. Cisco and Professor Stein from ‘The Flash’ couldn’t have done better.

This is impressive enough, but what stopped me in my tracks was the photograph of Patrick’s beaming smile. It was just glorious to see the happiness and pleasure on the face of someone dealing with obstacles most of us can’t even being to imagine. It also made me think of the incredible support system he must have from family, friends and healthcare workers, because as a pharmacist with a gazillion years experience, I know the hard work being done by carers, and Patrick’s sheer determination to just keep making the best of everything, to make that smile possible. The whole story was just so inspirational. Amazing things included in the story:

• Patrick was a former artist. As far as I can see, none of the guys has an engineering background but they still managed to build the device
• He’s looking forward to spending the money on a home upgrade so that his two sons can have separate bedrooms before they ‘kill one another’
• He’s been able to incorporate a Nerf gun so he can fire foam darts at his children
• They’ve uploaded the plans online so they can be downloaded for free and thus other people can 3-D print their own Eyedrivomatics

If that’s not inspirational, I don’t know what is. It just reinforces the value of each and every human life for me. Whether in the peak of health or terminally ill, rich or poor, educated or unschooled, every person has value and purpose. There are things that only they may be able to do on a planet with 7 billion people on it, and I hope I do all I can to help others realise their potential even when it feels like a real hassle. Kudos to you, gentlemen.