Macinley Butson may be young but her “copper armour’ to improve breast cancer treatment is just one of her inventions.
Macinley Butson was still in school when she came up with the idea of a copper armour to help protect women undergoing cancer radiotherapy.
Macinley found copper ‘scale maille’, a type of medieval armour, is able to block about 80% of the harmful radiation that reaches the non-treated breast.
‘’A lot of scientific testing has shown that copper is 20% more effective than aluminium and lead,’’ Macinley told the Illawarra Mercury newspaper last year.
‘’It is such an issue for these women who have cancer at the moment. They’re undergoing treatment but have the thought that because of this treatment they may be developing another cancer.
In partnership with her brother, Ethan, she’s patented the ‘Smart Armour’ and they have Therapeutic Good Association approval to roll the invention out in hospitals which they are in talks with across Australia.
But the honours-and inventions-just keep coming.
She was named 2018 NSW Young Australian of the Year, Youth Ambassador for this year’s Sydney Science Festival, first Australian to win a top prize in the prestigious INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair 2017, and the first NSW first high school student to receive a grant of $5,000 from the New South Wales Government’s new Supporting Young Scientists Program.
More information:
http://www.macinleybutson.com/awards/