Look Up Without Pain

New Zealander Darrell Poole invented the neck safety-device Necprotech after surviving a rock-climbing accident in 1998 which saw him fall six metres because of a slack rope. Poole fell after his belayer – the climber’s buddy who watches the ascent and feeds the rope to ensure that it stays taut in the event of a fall – had stopped looking up because his neck hurt. Poole made the prototypes in his shed at home. Leeds entrepreneur Nigel King and Poole’s brother, Brendon then presented Necprotech on venture capitalist show Dragons’ Den and received NZ $300,000 (£114,442), the highest sum of money won on the show. The device is marketed at those who spend a lot of time looking up, like those working in overhead power maintenance work, mining, fruit picking and forestry. “The head is very weak – it weighs about 14lb, the same as a bowling ball – and if you lean back it puts a lot of stress on the neck. There are about 1.2m people in the UK with muscular skeletal disorders, and we believe Necprotech will reduce stress on neck muscles by an average of 35 per cent,” said King.