What were you doing when you were eight years old? You probably weren’t packing your bags for a trip to space agency NASA like Amelia Fox.

Amelia, who goes to Brunswick North Primary School, will soon be jetting off to NASA’s headquarters after winning a national invention prize for her idea of a portable wheelchair hoist.

Entrants to Origin Energy’s littleBIGidea competition had to come up with a way to help people with disabilities or combat pollution and waste.

Lifting the bar

Amelia edged out more than 1000 other kids with her idea.

The fabric hoist is incorporated into the wheelchair’s seat cushion which can be wrapped up and attached to hooks, allowing for easy lifting.

Amelia was inspired to invent the hoist after watching her parents struggling to lift her 40kg brother, Jake, out of his wheelchair after surgery.

A diagram of Amelia’s wheelchair hoist. Photo: ABC

“My brother was getting heavier,” she said. “Before he had the metal plates put in his leg, he was a lot lighter.

“A few days after the metal plate were put in, Mum and Dad were struggling because the metal plates were quite heavy.

“Every year I’ve been thinking a little bit more about it and it took me to this year, when I finally came up with the right idea.”
“I’m pretty sure it works really well.”

While she is excited to go to NASA, her eye is firmly on the prize.

“I’m a little more excited about having lunch with an astronaut,” she said.

Amelia topped the Year 3 and 4 category, and is one of three national winners.

Fellow inventor and head judge Dr Jordan Nguyen said her invention was a clever solution to what could be a trying problem for carers.

“What Amelia came up with was simple and beautiful,” he said.

“People in wheelchairs need to be lifted all the time. I mean, it happens every day that nurses, carers, families will lift people out of a wheelchair and this causes, quite often, it causes injuries.

“It’s just a brilliant idea that would help so many people.”

-ABC