Ruth is a British inventor and entrepreneur who is best known for her StairSteady mobility aid. Born in Sheffield, Ruth’s life was turned upside down when her father suffered a stroke while she was still in school. She designed the StairSteady as part of a GCSE Resistant Materials project, to respond to her teacher’s challenge of designing an aid for people with limited mobility to use their stairs.
The product was so successful that it was deemed worthy of entering the market – it was launched in April 2008 at Naidex, a national healthcare show, and StairSteady Ltd started trading in September 2008.
In celebration of her contribution to disabled people’s day to day lives, she was awarded the Young Engineer of the Year award in 2006, for her groundbreaking idea. Chosen by Management Today, Ruth was titled one of Britain’s Heroines For Hard Times 35 women under 35, making her one of the youngest ever to win the award, as well as Derbyshire Young Achiever 2006, was listed on the Yorkshire 42 under 42 in 2010, and was noted as the first-ever Women of the Future YoungStar award winner.
Ruth is passionate about education – she works on projects to help promote enterprise in education, talking in schools regularly and speaking at events across the country to promote participation in engineering, and other STEM subjects. In June 2011, Ruth set up SteelTV, a media company run by young people, which specialises in capturing live events, sponsored by O2.
Ruth is an inspirational individual who, despite being faced with adversity over her father’s ill health, was able to turn her sorrow into something constructive and innovative, creating a successful business and helping millions of people worldwide in the process. She channels this passion into her public speaking, to inspire the next generation of business owners to take the first step towards their future.
