What is the inspiration for your product, and how do you think it will help people across the UK?

The GWMV product addresses a growing serious social problem of an ageing population and the disease pathologies associated with this group. We want to tackle the issue of dementia and how to prevent it in this population. It’s been estimated by just 2025, dementia will affect over 1 milllion people in the UK. It affects 1 in 14 people over 65 and 1 in 6 people over 80 years old. Preventing or delaying dementia is therefore a key goal to help preserve a person’s functional activity and overall well-being. Dementia also costs the UK economy £26 billion per year made up of NHS costs (around £4billion), and social care (around £10 billion). The rest is made up from financial contributions from friends and family to support the affected person.

Why did you apply for the Inventor Prize?

I applied for the Inventor Prize as I saw the GWMV product as an opportunity that has potentially great social benefit, which fits the brief of the competition. Despite winning government support, having product validation through a thorough process with many more respected and accomplished judges is something that I have valued greatly during the ups and downs of product development. Through the workshops and the mid-point finalist event, we have also thought about other aspects of the business such as financial planning.

What are you most looking forward to or have found useful so far about the Inventor Prize?

We have used the £5000 grant for further product development and intellectual property development.

Winning the Inventor Prize would be a great honour, especially with so many admirable product ideas that would be all worthy winners in this year’s competition. For us, winning would let us make major steps in product development towards commercialisation. One thing we would really like to do is company branding and develop a product name since as the product nears commercialisation stage it will mould product marketing. Watch this space!

Dr Tsong Kwong, Director of GWMV Ltd