Emily Renfrey gets a helping hand, thanks to Mat Bowtell’s revolutionary prosthetic limb

A PASSIONATE Melbourne engineer is using 3D technology to revolutionise the prosthetic industry and change the lives of kids in need of a helping hand.

Mat Bowtell’s gift to Emily Renfern, 4, is a revolutionary prosthetic limb revolutionising the industry. Picture: Ian Currie

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LITTLE Emily Renfrey needed a helping hand.

And she got one, thanks to the efforts of passionate Melbourne engineer Mat Bowtell, who has used 3D printing to revolutionise the pros­thetic industry and change the lives of kids just like her.

Born without bones in her right fingers, the plucky four-year-old is his latest recipient.

The device cost just $10.

“Prosthetics are very expensive, sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars,” Mr Bowtell said.

“I have been able to create something for much less — and give it away for free.”

With job cuts a looming reality in the automotive industry, the Toyota employee said he wanted to use his skills to make a difference in other ways.

Yesterday he stood with Emily’s parents, Sarah Renfrey and Colin Lindell, as they watched their daughter hold and bite into an apple using her right hand for the first time.

Engineer Mat Bowtell’s $10 prosthetic device that has revolutionised the industry, changing the lives of recipients. Picture: Ian Currie

Mr Lindell said the cost of fitting and replacing a normal prosthetic as their daughter grew was a daunting prospect.

“It would have cost us a lot of money,” he said.

“To find Mat and have the ability to do one through crowd-funding ... it is amazing.

“I wish there were more people like that in the world.”

Mr Bowtell invested his own cash to buy the printer and design and fit prosthetics for children and adults around Australia, New Zealand and now overseas.

He helped a friend in Japan play the piano again with an innovative kinetic finger that cost just $1.

Last month he sent an arm to a girl in Iraq.

Emily Renfern, 4, shows off her new prosthetic limb with Melbourne engineer Mat Bowtell. Picture: Ian Currie

Mr Bowtell said he was proof you didn’t have to be bound by tight finances to make dreams a reality.

“If you are passionate about something — do it,” he said. “And if you’re good enough eventually you will succeed.”

Now he wants to design and make a $100 bionic arm that will use brain signals to trigger movement in kinetic fingers.

But with 3D printers becoming a household feature as common as a microwave oven, he hopes to release his designs so people in need can print their own limbs at home.

“It’s a real affirmation to see the smile on people’s faces and something I hope to be doing well into the future,” he said. “It’s an amazing sense of satisfaction.”

Printer supplier Aurarum donated the materials but the 36-year-old said sending limbs around the world was still costly.

He will be an exhibitor at the Technology and Gadget Expo in Melbourne from August 19.

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