Amputee athlete created Sidestix to help people with mobility problems

She began exploring ways to live life more fully, creating tools to help her walk further, ski faster and climb higher. Drawing on her personal experiences has given Sarah the unique insight to create the products and accessories that help others on their journey to reclaim their independence.

People who use forearm crutches often experience overuse injuries due to poor design and lack of innovation. SideStix has made innovative crutch designs that aim to make people more comfortable and help to reduce injuries. "We wanted to understand whether these new crutch designs changed how force is applied during walking compared to traditional crutches", says on the official website.

So they made a study in the Human Locomotion Lab at the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre at ICORD in Vancouver with 13 healthy non-disabled people. The findings of this study was the boundless crutch reduced strain on arms (how force is spread out over time), helped reduce forces up and down (vertically) as well as forward/backward (braking) and increased propulsive force and (extra spring forward) which conserve energy when moving forward.

Sarah climbed Kilamanjaro and become the first amputee on Mt. McKinley.

Adapted from: http://sarahdoherty.com/about-sarah-doherty/
More information: http://www.sidestix.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmIODSUCQxU