Retired teacher to sew caps for brain scan helmets

A retired teacher who began sewing face masks during the Covid lockdown is helping to make caps for scientific research.

Jackie Cunningham, from Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, started making the equipment during the pandemic as a hobby.

She said she was approached to make the caps by Cerca Magnetics, which is working on a new type of brain scanner.

The caps will be put into helmets used to help patients with conditions such as dementia and epilepsy.

Ms Cunningham, who now runs her own sewing business, said she was sat at her machine and "a little bit surprised" when the call came through.

The caps she has designed will be slotted into the helmets used during the scans, which will make it more comfortable for patients.

"[The scientists] are very very clever, but they can't sew," she said.

"They gave me a template to make some caps, which I did, but the cap didn't fit, so I had to go to the drawing board literally and design my own patterns and templates in order to make the caps."

Having made hundreds of the caps, Ms Cunningham said she was delighted her business has "gone global", adding if the caps get medical approval to be used in hospitals her production will go up even more.

"I honestly can't believe it, because it was just a lockdown hobby," she said.

Based at the University of Nottingham's Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, Cerca Magnetics was set up in 2020, and awarded £2m in a government grant in February for its work on brain imaging.

Chief executive David Woolger said Ms Cunningham's woollen inserts would help their research.

"We had a challenge with the fact that we needed to keep the scalp cooler, and we found Jackie and were able to work with her," he said.

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