Name: Meet The Teen With The World’s Most Advanced Bionic Hands | This Morning
Uploaded: 2025-06-02T03:26:29.000Z
Duration: 9 min 49 s
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Gerund

Well, we're starting today by meeting a real-life superhero, aren't we?

To-infinitive

After contracting meningitis when she was just 15 months old, Tilly Lockie's hands were amputated to save her life.

The superlative

But through state-of-the-art bionic arms, she's been able to live a life to the fullest.

Tilly is now 19 years old and yesterday became the first person to get the most advanced wireless hands in the world, which are incredibly controlled by her mind.

Tilly joins us now alongside robotics engineer and all-around clever clogs who helped design her hands, Joel Gibbett.

You came on the show a few years ago, didn't you?

Let's start at the beginning for people who don't know the story.

You were just 15 months when you contracted meningitis.

And the thing is, with something like this, it's such a big thing.

Do you even remember, or do you even remember a point when you felt different from anyone else?

Yeah, it's completely life-altering, body-altering operation, obviously.

And luckily, I was so young at the time, so I don't remember it.

I've kind of had no hands my entire life, you know?

So it's just something that I've always known myself to be like.

And growing up, yeah, there's definitely some challenges.

You're adapting to a world that is designed for four limbs at the end of the day.

And something that has been a journey has been prosthetics.

And through my own experience, I've been able to see that evolution firsthand.

I think that's the most fascinating thing, is how many iterations does it have for you?

So when you started, what were your bionic arms like?

Well, my first prosthetic I ever got, I was two years old.

And I was pretty much fresh out the bandages.

It was basically like a tube to put your arm in.

There were these three prongs tied together by elastic bands.

And the way it operated was with this hook on the thumb, which would attach to a harness.

And then the way I'd move my upper body would pull on strings and make it move.

But obviously, two years old, got barely any bodily coordination anyway.

And now you see them, and they're 3D printed, muscle operated.

And when you're little, your gross motor skills, your fine motor skills have to be developed with that in mind as well, I suppose.

And I think for me, it was more I couldn't really, I wasn't just adopting it as my hand.

I just didn't really know what was even going on at that point.

Now, obviously, you're here to show off your new Bionic arms.

I've been watching you on Instagram, actually.

So tell me about these arms that you've got at the moment.

They're still 3D printed, muscle operated.

But we've got all this extra capabilities now, which is really, really cool.

Well, probably playing with LEGO as a child.

What got me really interested in technology, that evolved into electronics and robotics.

And then I wanted to do something that would have a positive social impact with technology.

So I got really into Bionic hands and prosthetics.

What's it like as an industry to get into?

Presumably, there's a lot of qualifications you need before you even start.

But it must be so innovative and so exciting.

And looking at Tilly's journey, it's come on so much in the last 10, 15 years?

One of the reasons that inspired me to get into it was because technology wasn't really moving forward from the sense of what people were actually getting for prosthetic limbs.

So there's lots of research taking place, lots of really exciting things.

But they weren't really making it to market.

And so that was one of the key things, was like, could we take this really cool technology but actually make it accessible, make it accessible to the NHS, make it so that everybody's actually getting it?

Tell us about that story of meeting Tilly.

It was probably like, you were about 9, 10 years old, I think, at that time.

So we initially, we wanted to work with users of prosthetics very much from day one.

So we were putting out calls on social media to say, does anybody want to help us test the new designs, prototypes that we're making?

And was it you or your mum got in touch with us?

I think it was your mum got in touch with us initially.

And we were like, yes, that would be great.

And even from 9, 10 years old, Tilly was giving us fantastic ideas for how to design the arms.

Tilly, what's extraordinary was before we came on air, you said you're still getting used to these.

You sort of don't know your own strength.

Yeah, I mean, they're twice as fast, twice as strong.

So it's definitely something to get used to.

But I mean, even better, I get to be bigger and stronger now.

So can you demonstrate a few of the things that you can do?

I can just control it like that, can do anything I want to do.

I mean, everything ultimately comes from the brain.