Retired Formula 1 engineer teams up with engineering student to build the next generation Smart Walking Stick for Parkinson's

Back in July, we introduced you to Euan Piercy, a young mechanical engineering student at Swansea University whose biggest inspiration started right at home. Watching his beloved grandad live with Parkinson's and struggle with freezing of gait, where the feet suddenly feel glued to the floor mid step, Euan refused to just stand by. What began as his final year university dissertation quickly grew into a personal mission to build something that genuinely helps. Seeing a gap for an affordable, everyday tool that delivers clinical external cueing, Euan designed the Smart Walking Stick. Built straight into a familiar walking stick handle, his device delivers three sensory signals at once to help the brain bypass a freeze and find its natural walking rhythm again: a clear metronome beat to hear, a gentle vibration in the grip to feel, and a bright laser line projected onto the floor to step over. What happened next is a testament to the extraordinary power of our readers. By the end of the summer, your generous donations had given Euan more than enough to move from an early concept to working reality. Even better, that original article caught the eye of someone who would change the trajectory of the entire project. Sitting at home in Brittany, France, retired Formula 1 engineer and experienced CAD designer Martin Brigden Gwinnutt was reading Parkinson's Insights when Euan's story jumped off the page. For Martin, the problem Euan was trying to solve was deeply personal. Martin's father had Parkinson's, and the condition progressed very rapidly. Freezing of gait was a constant battle that led to frequent falls, which his mother simply could not manage physically on her own. Worse still, freezing meant his father often could not reach the bathroom in time, forcing him to wear incontinence pads. Watching a proud man lose his dignity and self respect in that way was devastating. In his final two years, his father had to move into a nursing home just five minutes down the road because his mother's own health was suffering so badly from the strain of caring for him. She remained pragmatic and stoic through it all, visiting constantly even though they both hated the arrangement, and watching on as he lost half his body weight during his time there. Martin lost his father on the early morning of his own birthday in 2023, having sat with him the day before. When Martin read about Euan's determination to tackle freezing, the mental connection was immediate. He is under no illusions about the ultimate progression of the condition, yet he knows that a tool like this could have given his father a precious extension of independence and preserved his dignity at home for just a little longer. Wanting to help someone else's father avoid that same heartbreak, Martin reached out to offer his decades of elite engineering and design expertise entirely as a volunteer. Turning community generosity into working hardware While Martin was coming on board, Euan was busy putting every penny of your summer donations to work. Rather than sitting on the funds, he transformed his workspace into a rapid prototyping hub and launched a dedicated website to keep everyone updated. Your support paid for a 3D printer, a filament dryer, and soft TPU materials, meaning a brand new handle or grip design can now be printed and tested within a single day. He also purchased the walking stick shafts, fixings, building tools, and five complete sets of custom electronics. Three of those sets now sit inside fully functioning Version 2.0 prototypes, complete with Euan's own electronics, custom code uploaded directly into the handles, and a companion app. Each stick houses three distinct cues right in the handle: a laser line projected onto the floor, a rhythmic beat, and a tactile vibration, all controlled effortlessly by buttons under the thumb. Formula 1 precision meets grassroots innovation The remaining two sets of electronics have been saved for the exciting next chapter with Martin. Working together and backed by a full year of professional design software granted through the SOLIDWORKS for Startups programme, the pair are now engineering Version 2.x. Martin is completely overhauling the ergonomics of the grip and giving the stick a robust, polished, market ready finish that looks and feels like a piece of reliable everyday hardware rather than a lab experiment. A landmark November and how you can help test the next batch November is shaping up to be a massive month for the project. On 12 November, Euan is speaking with NHS physiotherapists at NELFT to gather clinical feedback on the new design, building on guidance he has already received from the NHS Health Innovation Network on navigating medical device regulations. The very next day, on 13 November, Euan will be bringing the project to Parkinson's UK's ParCon to meet the community and the Tech Guide team in person. Days later, on 18 November, he steps onto the stage at Swansea University's Big Pitch final to compete for funding. Once ParCon wraps up, Euan and Martin will focus on making the final design rock solid before building an initial batch of ten sticks for real world user testing ahead of official medical device registration. While Euan is relying on the Big Pitch prize to fund the parts for those ten sticks, there is very little left in the pot to cover the practical costs of running the user trials. This is where the community comes in once again. Whether you want to try the prototype in person, sign up as a tester, or help fund the trials, there are three ways to get involved right now: Meet Euan at ParCon and try the stick: If you are attending Parkinson's UK's Par Con on 13 November in Birmingham in the UK, come and say hello to Euan and test the Smart Walking Stick in person. Register as a tester or follow the journey: Head over to smartwalkingstick.co.uk and fill in the register your interest form to put your name forward for user testing and receive project updates. Support the user testing phase: If you would like to chip in to help Euan and Martin cover the costs of testing these ten sticks with people in the community, you can make a direct contribution via Euan's Stripe support page. What started as one young engineer trying to honour his grandad has grown into an extraordinary partnership between grassroots determination, Formula 1 engineering, and a community that refuses to stand still. Thank you for making it happen, and we cannot wait to share what our testers think of the new sticks.