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09 Sept 2025
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09 Sept 2025
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TWENTY-four-year-old Olivia Humphreys has been honoured as Limerick Person of the Month for her life-changing invention for cancer patients.
In November, the Pallasgreen woman was announced the overall winner of the prestigious James Dyson 2024 award with a prize fund of €38,000.
Her invention ‘Athena’ is a portable, thermoelectric battery-operated scalp cooling device for people undergoing chemotherapy treatment which is more cost-effective and time-saving than hospital models, without compromising on quality.
The University of Limerick (UL) graduate is now working as a Research and Development Intern at Luminate Medical in Galway working on medical device tech.
She was inspired to create Athena having seen her mum go through chemotherapy in hospital a few years ago.
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Upon receieving her Limerick Person of the Month award at the Clayton Limerick, Ms Humpreys said: “I am so excited, so proud and honoured to be honest.
“It has been a really busy couple of months working on the project and for it to come to the end and to be receiving all of these recognitions and positive feedback, it’s been really fulfilling and lovely.
“When I was working on my project, Athena, I realised it was my passion and it’s what gets me up in the morning, thinking about the impact that this can have on people and the future. It really motivates me to work hard and get it out as quickly as possible.”
Saying that she flew over from the US this Friday morning, December 20, to receive the Limerick Person of the Month award, Ms Humphreys said she was in New York working on clinical trial for the device.
“When it comes out, it’s going to change the face of cancer I think. It is so rewarding to work on this, and I couldn’t be more passionate about it.”
Additionally, Ms Humprheys is the first Irish winner of the global competition, James Dyson Awards, since it began in 2006.
Ms Humphreys will proceed to the Limerick Person of the Year ceremony early next year, where the coveted award will be presented to one of the 12 Person of the Month recipients.
Limerick Person of the Month is sponsored by the Limerick Leader, Southern and the Clayton Hotel.
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