It feels like we say this to each other every year – but this year has been busy! On both a work and personal front for many of our team, 2025 has flown by! New products, new staff, new purchases – as well as a couple of house moves, an engagement and a wedding!
Product Development
We are always working on new gripping aids to support our community to experience greater independence and welcome new possibilities in their lives. Last year our Flexi Phone Holder quickly became one of our bestsellers. So this year we have focussed on creating some fantastic accessories to go with it. The Flexi Phone Holder is now a brilliant way to keep hold of your phone, tablet, DSLR camera, PlayStation or XBox gaming controller and even has a playing card holder attachment for those who love a card game.
This year we’ve also developed two sports-specific gloves that are already busy supporting people to train and compete in both wheelchair rugby and wheelchair racing. Our bespoke-made Wheelchair Racing Gloves come in both standard and quad versions and are designed to support perfect positioning on the rim, enabling great contact and a powerful push. Our Wheelchair Rugby gloves have received great feedback from the testing phase and are nearly ready to go… one to keep an eye out for next year!
To enable us to develop products more effectively, we make great use of 3D printers. This year, our first 3D printer (lovingly nicknamed ‘Maureen’) has reached retirement age and is now enjoying some well-earned relaxation on the shelf of our production room, while we look for the right home for her. She has been replaced with a younger, ‘snazzier’ model, we’ve named Bao-Bao. Bao-Bao is working flat out printing products and helping us to prototype new ideas.
Supporting customers and professionals
Through 2025, we’ve done more exhibitions than ever before – and they’ve been some of our busiest days! We love meeting you, helping you to get ‘hands on’ with our products and working together to find solutions to everyday frustrations. We’ve also enjoyed several opportunities to meet the professionals who work with our products. From exhibitions to meetings at rehab facilities, we’ve made some great new connections and been able to share ideas with lots of OTs and physios.
We recognise what a key relationship we have with the professionals who use our products. This year, we have worked hard to find ways to further support the tremendous work OTs and physios are doing. Our website now has a professionals section. Here, you’ll find links to resources and information to help you make the most of everything we offer. We have also published our first CPD training module – ‘the benefits of ongoing sport and exercise to disabled people’. This online course covers recent research and outlines the best ways to overcome barriers to exercise for disabled people. It also offers a detailed walk-through of our gym/sport gripping aids – who they are suitable for, the exercises they support and how to use them. A great resource for many professionals, it has already had some wonderful feedback. And it meets the HCPC competencies required for professional development. You can watch the module here.
Staff News
Over the summer, we said goodbye to Lucy, our production assistant, as she moved abroad with her family. We hope they settle quickly and enjoy their new adventure. Soon after, Simone joined our team to step into Lucy’s role and we are thrilled to welcome her!
We also welcomed Joseph at the end of Spring this year as a freelance product developer. Joseph has a deep understanding of the impact of living with disability as his dad is tetraplegic and his mum worked on a spinal injury unit. Combined with his fantastic product design skills, he’s doing some great work for us already. We’re excited to see what 2026 brings.
Outside of the office, many of our team have had a pretty big year! Jo and Millie both bought new homes and are proving to be DIY superstars as they renovate them in their evenings and weekends. It has been a year of romance too, as over the summer Millie got enagaged and Sarah got married. Many of us were lucky enough to attend Sarah’s wedding day, which was absolutely lovely and we’re all enjoying hearing about Millie’s wedding planning.
Lots of the team managed a family day out together in August at the Superhero Tri. We had a stand to share our work and many of us took part in team triathlons, including our littlest ‘teammate’, 6-year-old, Xanthe. Riding her bike, she kept her big brother Jacob company while he completed the run section of his triathlon. For the grown-ups, Jo S took on the swim, Rob the bike and Jo G and Millie completed the run section, skipping across the finish line together! Great teamwork from everyone!
Looking forward
We’ve had a great 2025, but we’re already looking foward to 2026! We’ve got some really exciting plans in the pipeline and can’t wait to continue creating high-quality, thoughtful products that open new possibilities, enable greater independence and bring joy to those with reduced hand function. We hope you all have a peaceful Christmas and we wish all of our community a really wonderful 2026.
The Active Hands team
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