Carl Beech has had a varied life and career from financial consultant to Christian Minister in Bath, charity director, published author, festival organiser, podcaster – the list goes on, but now he has added inventor to the pot.
In 2023, Carl, who is in his early fifties, was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease (YOPD). This progressive and degenerative neurological disorder causes symptoms like tremors, stiffness, slow movement and difficulty speaking. Non-motor symptoms include depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance.
As a public speaker, it’s not hard to imagine the impact this syndrome has had on Carl’s life – not only on the big stage in front of a crowd, but in everyday interactions too like bumping into someone in the street for a chat. Symptoms like slurred and stuttering speech can mistakenly be interpreted by the uninformed onlooker as drunkenness – ironic, in that Carl has been teetotal for some years now. In fact, to short-circuit this misconception Carl has in past times worn a tongue-in-cheek t-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘I’m not pissed I’ve got Parkinson’s’. Of course, there are drugs available to somewhat mitigate the symptoms of the disease but they wear off after a few hours. Clinicians advise to ‘speak more slowly’, but Carl was not willing to accept that was his only option.
Tapping into the apocalypse
The circumstances of Carl’s ‘Eureka’ moment were inauspicious. One night, while eating a Double Decker and watching Apocalypse Now on the television Carl discovered that by tapping out a beat on his body for each syllable while he spoke, he was able to get his words out far more easily than otherwise possible when not on his medication. Without the meds, speaking takes a lot of mental effort and Carl stammers his way through a sentence. But by tapping himself with a steady beat it causes something in his brain to regulate his speech and allows him to express himself clearly once again. Carl shared his remarkable discovery on social media and many folks have taken notice. Over the days and weeks since that night back in June, Carl has honed the ‘tactile cueing’ method to the point where, at a certain tempo, and by not paying any attention to the tapping, his brain just takes over and does its thing allowing him to speak normally again. Carl has since shared his findings all over social media and received remarkable testimonies from fellow sufferers who have adopted the method. By simply tapping a steady beat anywhere on his body, Carl is able to speak fluently, and to the onlooker it is clear it is profoundly effective. Other sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease and related syndromes have found the method works not only for speech, but for improving symptoms such as dyskinesia, dystonia, motor tics, and even for reducing anxiety.
The Beech Band
Carl has an entrepreneurial streak in him so it didn’t take long before he began to think of how he could develop a low-cost, discreet and easy to use device that could produce a haptic pulse to mimic the tapping method he was finding so effective at eliminating his stammer. Turning to his friend (and now business partner), Nick Whiteley, they began experimenting, building prototypes and iterating on a device that can be worn on the wrist which they dubbed the “Beech Band”. A gofundme page was set up to support the development of the Beech Band which blasted through an initial target of £10,000 earmarked to raise startup funds. The duo have set a new target of £20,000 with a promise that every pound raised above the initial £10k will be used as a ‘pay it forward’ fund to enable those in financial hardship to receive a device for free. People are obviously seeing the potential of this simple solution to change lives and are putting their money behind it. At time of writing, the extra £10k target is over 75% complete.
Carl and Nick are working incredibly hard to produce a device optimised for price, simplicity and convenience and hope to have an initial 1,000 units available before Christmas, with acceleration to full production in 2025.
Carl’s ethos is that The Beech Band should be accessible to all who need it which is why he and Nick are laser-focused on making it affordable. It should come in at under £15 with a very slim profit margin. At least 25% of profits will be going to Parkinson’s-related charities.
In a bold move, both Carl and Nick agreed from the outset that they would seek to protect their intellectual property and brand but not to patent the device. In their view a patent is only worth the paper it’s written on if you’re willing to defend it at great cost in court.
“I think people will buy from us anyway… a patent is extremely hard to defend when you’re small guys like us in the shed…if a massive company with a huge production line decides to make them… I’m actually not worried about that because I believe that people will get them from us; we are going to give to charity, and we are going to support people… but also, philosophically, this is about driving forward new thinking. My strong contention is that we are learning new things because of this… at the right time, for the benefit of all, we will make everything freely available, and we will invite everyone to contribute to this.”
Excitement about the Beech Band is building at a pace with Parkinson’s related charities reporting on the story. In fact, just last week parkinsons.org.uk announced they are investing in the Beech Band to help refine it and allow it to be tested within the Parkinson’s community.
Carl is on a mission and he puts it as succinctly as possible:
“I want to help people get their lives back”
If you would like to contribute to the development of the Beech Band go to Carl and Nick’s gofundme page to donate.
