A disabled man who was no longer able to bend to feed his pets has invented a device to make the process easier.
Ray Dinham has cerebral palsy and began to find it increasingly difficult to bend down to pick up his cats’ food bowls. The 57-year-old former engineer decided to put his skills to work to come up with a solution, but admits that his first attempt was over-ambitious.
“It was an automatic product and a bit too expensive for the market,” he told the BBC News website.
His second version, the DinnerUp, is far simpler - a tray attached to a column which, itself, is fixed to a wall or kitchen cabinet. The tray is then wound up and down the column by turning a handle which includes a clutch device.
Dinham believes that his typical customer will be an older person who finds it difficult to bend down - particularly someone who has recently had a hip replacement.
Although he currently assembles the units himself, Dinham is planning to outsource the manufacturing to a UK-based company as demand increases.
He has already started selling his device abroad including to a satisfied customer in the USA who wanted one in time for his wife’s birthday.
Photo by DinnerUp.
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