IncoStress No More Misery for Thousands of Women

Millions of women experience incontinence, largely due to insufficient strength to the pelvic floor muscles. Some may lose a few drops of urine while running or coughing, while others may feel a strong, sudden urge to urinate just before losing a large amount. Many women experience both symptoms.

Incontinence can be slightly bothersome or totally demoralising and for many women the risk of public embarrassment stops them enjoying many activities and impacts on their quality of life. Additionally urine loss can also occur during sex and cause tremendous emotional distress.

Gaynor Morgan’s mother Carole suffered in silence for years and searching for solutions mother and daughter found help was not readily at hand. As incontinence isn’t deemed a life threatening condition, very little money is spent on research. The most common solution offered for incontinence is pads, which only hide the problem but never solve it. Gaynor and Carole were looking for a more permanent solution.

Gaynor’s story behind the development of reveals experiences and challenges that brought invaluable skills for running her successful company. Born in Bridgend, South Wales, Gaynor’s career has taken her half way around the world and back as the C&G Medicare Ltd headquarters are located in South Wales supplying the UK, Canada and the European market with their products.

“At school I loved human biology,” says Gaynor. “My first job was working in our local swimming pool followed by Boots the Chemist and then I ended up nursing in the same hospital as my mother.

“At the age of 20 I became a psychiatric geriatric nurse in Charring Cross Hospital London.  My father was a ground engineer for Gulf Air based in Bahrain and one day I saw an advert for Gulf Air stewardesses, so I applied and got the job.  Within four years I was promoted to purser in charge of cabin crew flying B737 B767 and L1011 aircrafts.”

1997 took Gaynor in another direction and she trained to teach English as a second language, earning a place teaching at the British Council Bahrain. This was followed by a move to Belgium where she studied French and Dutch, and became an official Dutch translator.

“Whilst living overseas, I regularly visited my mother back in the UK. One particular visit was to re-shape our lives forever. My mother Carole had started having problems with incontinence around the age of 40.  At 45 the incontinence was such an issue she had the TVT operation (a procedure to help women with stress incontinence) this worked on a temporary basis but a few years later the symptoms returned.

“Whilst shopping in Swansea together Carole coughed causing her to lose urine, she was so devastated and embarrassed that she just froze in the shop and panicked. She was terrified other shoppers would notice the wet patch. We went home and finally Carole opened up her feelings to me and explained how bad things really were.

“Armed with our nursing experience we looked at the anatomical and physiological side of the condition to find an urgent solution.”

Gaynor and Carole started to search for a solution anywhere in the world to help Carole.

“We used to visit medical exhibitions to see if there was anything there to help, but there never was.  Carole mentioned that things weren’t so bad when she was menstruating and looking further into this we found the reason.”

During menstruation Carole wore a tampon. The tampon supported the urethra and any exerted pressure was able to gently compress the urethra enough to control the loss of urine while not interfering with the normal flow.

Knowing the dangers of using a tampon outside the recommended use they decided to look for a re-usable tampon. There was nothing available, and so they made their first working prototype in 1998.

Sitting down at the kitchen table they made a simple prototype using Gaynor's five-year old daughter's art material - self-hardening clay to make the mold. Then using a candle, a straw and a key chain ring the clay was compress into the mold to make the shape, and then filled with silicone sealant.

Carole covered it with a condom for hygiene reasons, and tested it.

“She started doing star jumps in the middle of the kitchen,'’ says Gaynor, '”and though she had a full bladder, she didn't leak at all. ‘It works, it works!’ she yelled. She wore it every day after that, and started to go out again without the slightest leak.”

Gaynor financed her business with savings earned with Gulf Air, and as the business grew opened an aircrafts spare parts company selling parts to international airlines to continue financing. She also got a small grant from the Welsh Assembly Government.

The product they developed grew from strength to strength. What started as a daughter’s attempt to help her mother with an embarrassing condition has won many international awards  - and has transform the lives of thousands of others who suffer from incontinence and pelvic floor weakness.

For more information visit www.incostess.com 

Poppy Watt

Posted Thu, 10/06/2011 - 22:08 by Poppy Watt