A cancer diagnosis is one of the most harrowing one can get, with both the illness and the side effects of treatment often being a source of extreme anxiety for patients. One of those side-effects is hair loss, however one young inventor hopes to allay that for those undergoing chemotherapy. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
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00:00A cancer diagnosis is one of the most harrowing one can get, with both the illness and the
00:04side effects of chemotherapy treatment often being a source of extreme anxiety for patients.
00:10One of those side effects is hair loss. However, one young inventor hopes to allay those anxieties
00:14for those undergoing chemotherapy. This is 24-year-old student Olivia Humphries,
00:20the inventor of a wearable device which cools the scalp and has now won the James Dyson Award
00:25in Ireland. Scalp cooling is a common technique associated with preventing hair loss in patients
00:30undergoing chemotherapy. And while it doesn't prevent hair loss entirely, it can reduce the
00:34amount of hair lost while undergoing treatment. And now this device could be used to aid in that
00:39endeavor, all from the comfort of one's own home. Humphries says she was inspired by her mother,
00:44who went through the experience. However, she's changing the way traditional scalp cooling is done.
00:49The device is utilizing low-cost thermoelectric components
00:53to cool water that circulates around the scalp. And it's lightweight, it's portable. Traditional
01:00scalp cooling requires refrigeration, meaning patients are plugged into a large machine at a
01:04hospital. There's studies showing that, you know, some women find that leaving their hair is
01:11as difficult as losing a breast, you know. It's that kind of thing, it's that extreme,
01:15and chemotherapy is the main goal. We've got to focus on, you know, killing the cancer cells,
01:21but you've got to focus on the person that's also living in the body that
01:25the cancer cells are being killed in.