LIMAVADY occupational therapist Martina Tierney has been named the first ever winner of the Catalyst Impact Award.

Part of the annual innovation competition, INVENT 2022, the award is in recognition of for her work with family firm ‘Seating Matters', designing therapeutic chairs to meet the needs of patients with disabilities.

Ms Tierney founded the company in 2008 in response to a lack of appropriate seating in care homes, designing the first therapeutic chairs to meet the complex needs and pressure injuries of her individual patients.

Research has shown that appropriate seating improves respiration, digestion, posture, reduces pressure injuries and improves a patient's overall quality of life.

Her work has now been recognised by an expert panel of judges, making her the first ever recipient of the new award.

“I am so glad that more people can now see the importance that good seating has on a person's health and wellbeing.,” said the company director.

“When I first established Seating Matters in response to a lack of appropriate seating in local care homes, I never imagined our business would grow to where it is today.

We now supply our chairs across the UK and Ireland, Australia, USA, Canada and other parts of Europe. We have aggressive growth plans where we will supply our chairs to many new territories globally in the next five years, allowing us to help more people.

“Our goal is to improve millions of lives every year through our products and global partnerships. It is recognition like this which will help us to improve the lives of many more people in the future.”