I used to be finding out engineering on the College of Bristol when my Grandma Pat, who had dementia, was rushed to hospital. She had turn into severely dehydrated, and my household was advised to anticipate the worst. 

Fortunately, after 24 hours on IV fluids, she made a full restoration, however I used to be shocked that not consuming sufficient had such a big impact on her well being. Wanting into it additional, I realised that the scenario isn’t unusual. I needed to assist.

I’ve at all times been pushed by innovation. After leaving Bristol, I gained a scholarship to review at Imperial Faculty London and The Royal Faculty of Artwork.

Right here, I used to be capable of apply creativity and technical understanding to deal with significant points. However I quickly realised that, with the intention to have actual impression, these ideas have to get out into the world. That’s after I had the enterprise concept that might assist my Grandma and over 60,000 dementia sufferers.

“I made the prototype in my pupil kitchen”

Many within the later phases of dementia overlook to drink. They might refuse assist, or lack the dexterity to assist themselves, which might have an effect on their vitamin. Whereas my grandma was in poor health, I spent a month dwelling in her care residence, talking to and observing residents, in addition to their relations and carers. 

I seen that, whereas it was virtually unimaginable for a lot of to hydrate independently, virtually everybody was joyful to eat a deal with. I’d be ignored by residents (which is honest sufficient!) but when I had a field of sweets then everybody needed to be my pal and enthusiastically took a handful. 

From this, Jelly Drops was born. Jelly Drops are tasty, fruity sweets which are sugar-free. Crucially, they’re additionally 95% water-based, and include added electrolytes and nutritional vitamins for simpler hydration.

When I first confirmed the prototype to Granny she ate seven drops in 10 minutes. After posting a video of her consuming them on-line it rapidly went viral, accumulating 100m+ views. From this trick of digital advertising, I used to be inundated with world requests; all whereas nonetheless making them in my pupil kitchen.

Lewis and his late Grandma Pat, who impressed Jelly Drops

Jelly Drops instantly had a neighborhood of tens of 1000’s, and the potential to assist hundreds of thousands – however I knew I wouldn’t have the ability to realise this alone. I joined forces with Claudia Arnold, Jelly Drops co-founder and COO. Collectively, we set about taking Jelly Drops from idea to actuality.

“Everybody from the staff helped out”

It took 18 months to develop an ambient steady 95% water candy that was simple to select up and chew.  Then, we had to determine how you can make it at scale.

No one knew how to do that so we arrange our personal manufacturing facility and designed the method ourselves. We ended up packing the primary 10 million drops in a small unit in Hackney.

Having management over manufacturing allowed us to be tremendous agile in responding to buyer suggestions. In some unspecified time in the future or one other, everybody from the staff has discovered themselves serving to out within the manufacturing unit.

This proximity to the product additionally meant we stayed progressive and responsive. The insights we gained additionally allowed us to automate, and this has given us the scalability required to succeed in our goals.

“Encouraging joyful moments”

Presently, over a million Jelly Drops are eaten a month throughout the UK, US and Canada – however our ambitions are a lot larger. Dementia, and different circumstances impacting hydration, are world points and we intend to scale to satisfy the dimensions of the issue.

We now have a rising buyer base exterior of dementia; lots of whom wrestle with hydration for quite a lot of causes comparable to these with Autism Spectrum Dysfunction (ASD), studying difficulties, or who’re present process chemotherapy. 

We wish to get the product to those who want it essentially the most. Typically these are individuals in hospitals, so we’ve been working with a lot of NHS Trusts to make Jelly Drops accessible on the ward to hurry up restoration and get individuals residence faster.

One other big early achievement has been partnering with the Alzheimer’s society by their innovation accelerator programme. We now donate 1% of all our income to them.

Finally, we wish to construct a extra caring and inclusive world for these dwelling with dementia, in addition to others underserved by typical merchandise. By way of supporting important vitamin, and inspiring joyful moments, we wish to convey a smile to hundreds of thousands similar to Grandma Pat.