Manufacturing joy

Commonwealth Points of Light is a special series of awards recognising inspirational volunteers throughout the Commonwealth. These awards were made by Her Late Majesty The Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth, to recognise inspirational volunteers across the 54 Commonwealth nations for the difference they are making in their communities and beyond.

By sharing these stories of service, the Commonwealth Points of Light awards celebrate inspirational acts of volunteering across the Commonwealth and help inspire others to make their own contribution to tackling some of the greatest social challenges of our time.

“I am very honoured to receive this kind recognition from Her Majesty The Queen, giving me confidence and affirmation that ‘Free 3D Hands’ is heading in the right direction. I would like to acknowledge all of the incredible support and encouragement from my wife and children, and thank all of the generous people who have helped us through crowd-funding to make Free 3D Hands a reality. I dream of a world where assistive devices are accessible to all people around the world. Through making all of our designs open-source, I am also hoping to encourage prosthetic and bionic developers to innovate and use smarter engineering to bring their costs down. I believe that as a society we have a fundamental responsibility to look after those who are less fortunate than ourselves. If I charged even $10 for a hand, then to me it would only be worth $10. But when you give it to someone for free with no expectation of reward, then it becomes priceless. Volunteering has helped me to find my true purpose in life and has given me more satisfaction than I could have ever imagined. Each one of us has special talents and abilities that can be shared to improve the lives of others.”