Award for bathlift inventor

David Garman, the entrepreneur who invented the world’s first portable bathlift, has been presented with the

award for lifetime services to healthcare.

The award, the highest accolade the health industry can bestow, was handed to Garman, 85, the founder and chairman of Mangar International, a business he established in Wales almost thirty years ago.

Garman's work is celebrated for revitalising the medical care industry.

Garman set about designing and making his own pneumatic-based lift in 1980 when he found there was little equipment available to help his ageing parents get in and out of the bath. It was an immediate success, winning a TV award for innovation within months.

Now a world leader in rehabilitation, Mangar International sells to emergency services, hospitals and care homes throughout the world, as well as to more familiar names such as B&Q and Hilton Hotels.

Garman said: ‘I am astounded and humbled by the award. Every day during the past twenty seven years it has been such a pleasure to try to make other people's lives better in some way.’