Ian Morley runs his own business specialising in kitchen fitting and carpentry work. Friends came to Ian when their daughter, Erin, had to undergo a hip dysplasia operation and needed a chair to enable her to sit up comfortably and independently.
Children who have developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) – when the ball-shaped part of the end of the thighbone and the socket do not fit correctly together – will need to undergo a hip dysplasia operation. This can be done on children aged six months and over. After the operation they will be placed into a spica hip and leg cast for 12 weeks or more. This results in a child being unable to sit up without help and so conventional chairs cannot support them.
Ian designed Erin’s Chair, a compact, free-standing, collapsible spica chair that has a three-point safety harness to safely secure a young child post-op. Ian has already made several spica chairs that have been used and tested by young children who have had an operation to treat their DDH.
Ian joined the Regional Talent Engines programme in 2023. He credits the scheme with having turned a slow-moving project into one that has the potential to rapidly grow in scale. “The training workshops, the mentoring and the networks give experiences that money cannot buy! My business model has changed significantly, and for the better, during this process. I am very happy to admit that I was looking at some things in the wrong way beforehand. Without this valuable input we would only have been able to help a tiny proportion of the families that need our help.”
There are thousands of hip dysplasia operations taking place in the UK each year. Ian now has an amended design of Erin’s Chair that is being product tested. When it is ready for sale, the manufacturing will be done in-house. Licenses will be sought with international partners and Ian will look to grow the number of products that his business produces.
