A SCOTS product design graduate has been commended after inventing an ingenious gadget to help injury recovery.
Jodie Sinclair created smart clothing product, Theo, to help monitor athletes muscle development during injury recoveries.
The 25-year-old came up with the idea after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament, an injury which took three years to recover from, and has since been commended for the invention.
The University of Dundee graduate, has now been awarded £10,000 after winning the Royal Bank of Scotland Rose Award in the 2021 Converge Awards.
In total, the business woman has now won more than £30,000 in various entrepreneurship competitions and says the money will be used to roll out the product to physios.
Jodie, originally from the Outer Hebrides, hopes that Theo will motivate injured users and provides their physiotherapist with a greater insight into their recovery.
Theo also allows users to track their mental health, something Jodie believes is every bit as important as the physical recovery from injury.
Jodie said: “I got my injury when I was longboarding a week before I started university and it completely turned my world upside down.
“I had been playing football since I learned to walk and had also got into rugby and other sports. I had been scouted for a football scholarship in the US and hoped to play semi-professionally.
“I had always been known as an athlete, but suddenly I wasn’t anymore. I felt like part of my identity had been stripped away from me and I ended up in a dark place with depression.
“Rehabilitation can be a lonely and dispiriting experience and I definitely think the mental health side of recovery is overlooked.
“I went from being in peak physical condition to really struggling with simple exercises, like lifting my leg up from a chair.
“For the first six weeks you don’t really see any progress. You don’t have the endorphin rush you get from competing.
“It’s hard to keep motivated, so that’s where the idea of Theo comes in.
“Seeing that you are making progress that isn’t visible on the outside can make a real difference to how you approach the programme your physio sets you.
“It also helps them monitor your results and check-in with any clients who have reported persistently low moods.
“I want to prevent other people experiencing the same mental ordeal that I experienced after injury.”
The Rose Award is designed to boost female entrepreneurship in Scotland, and the prize package includes £10,000 in cash plus access to mentoring services.
