Problem:
Jelly Drops are 95% water sweets, designed to help
people with dementia stay hydrated. Initially developed by Lewis for his
Grandma Pat, Jelly Drops turn something that can often be a difficult task into
the highlight of the day.
Solution:
Many people with dementia no longer feel thirst, don’t
equate drinking with quenching thirst, or don’t recognise cups or have the
dexterity to pick them up. To understand this better, Lewis lived in his grandma’s
care home for a month. He realised that while many residents struggled to
hydrate themselves independently, they all loved sweets.
Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK,
currently effecting more than 850,000 people. This is expected to reach over
1.5 million by 2040. Jelly Drops are bright, easy to pick up, vegan, sugar-free
(with no laxative effect) sweets, that contain natural colours and flavours,
and are shelf-stable. They enable people with dementia to hydrate themselves
independently and with dignity.
The company has just launched and its main focus is to
reach people with dementia that are suffering from dehydration. Jelly Drops will
do this through care homes, but also via an online shop to serve people out in
the community. Once established in the UK, Jelly Drops plans to ship the
products abroad, and already has a waiting list of 35,000 in the US.
Jelly Drops hopes to diversify its product range to help
a wider audience with hydration and other critical dietary requirements.
Jelly Drops was the first company accepted onto the
Alzheimer’s Society Innovation Accelerator Programme and the project recently
won the Outstanding Dementia Care Innovation Award at the Dementia Care Awards.
Other awards
include Pitch@Palace Global - Winner, European Investment Bank - Social
Innovation Prize, EIT Food – UK Winner, EIT Health - Future of Health Award,
Innovation Forum - IMAGINE IF! Global winner, Pitch@Palace 11.0 - Audience Vote
and People’s Choice Award, Huawei - New Working Order Bursary and the
Meaning-Centred Design - Student Healthcare Winner .
Traction:
- July 2018: Jelly Drops won the
RCA’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design - Snowdon Award for Disability and
Imperial’s Dyson School of Design - DESIRE Award.
- Aug 2018: Online videos of
Jelly Drops receive over 100 million views and features on the BBC, Sky News
and many others.
- Sept 2018: Just Giving page is
set up on the company’s behalf and raises almost £10,000.
- Jan 2019: Jelly Drops features
on the TEDX stage in California.
- Feb 2019: Partner with
Alzheimer’s Society on its innovation accelerator programme.
- March 2019: Raised investment.
- Aug 2019: Develop Market ready
product to start user testing.
- Feb 2020: Production facility
completed and starts supplying people on the waiting list.
- March 2020: Raised further
investment.
- July 2020: Website launches to
the public.
- Nov 2020: Win Outstanding
Dementia Care Innovation Award and produce its millionth Jelly Drop.