In this informal vlog, Tilly Lockey documents the Open Bionics (OB) roadshow showcasing the Hero Arm prosthetic across three northern UK cities: Leeds, Glasgow, and Belfast. The video begins with a Halloween-themed introduction in Leeds, where the team prepares for the first experience day, detailing the purpose of the roadshow—to bring the Hero Arm experience closer to potential users outside Bristol. Tilly describes the event setup, including presentations by the team and her mother (head of crowdfunding), hands‑on lab tours, eligibility checks, and interactive activities like a hand‑drawing competition. The vlog captures logistical challenges such as arranging balloons, curating a playlist, and a car breakdown before a four‑hour drive to Glasgow, as well as the novelty of taking a ferry to Belfast. Throughout, Tilly shares personal moments—costume choices, fashion purchases, and team banter—while highlighting audience reactions, eligibility confirmations, and fundraising motivations. The final segment reflects on the tour’s success, the energy of the team, and plans for future events, ending with plans for a celebratory pint and a Chinese dinner.
Chapters
First on the OB tour, we have Leeds.
What's the difference between blue, green, and red?
One's vegan.
My God, it's going to be lucky dip. Should we just try them all?
Oh, what, does it not actually tell you?
No.
Oh, fun. Red, red. What color do you want? Me, I'm red. Happy Halloween, y'all! It's actually Halloween day today, um, and we're in Leeds. Actually did all our Halloween sort of celebrations on the 29th. So I had my cool costume. I was Thor. Me and my little sister were Thor and Loki because she looks just like Loki. And I'm a Thor stan. Because it's Halloween, I still need to make a bit of a spooky effort. Now I'm a bit basic spooky outfit, but it's better than nothing, right? It's Halloween. You can't be in joggers. But why are we in Leeds, you ask? Well, yes.
So we normally have Open Bionics experience days held down in Bristol. And then we decided to take the experience day out onto a road trip. Road trip instead. Instead of always coming down to Bristol, they'll actually be able to go to a place closer at home. At the minute, we've decided that we're going to do Leeds, and then we're going to go up to Glasgow, and then we're going to go across to Belfast and hopefully see as many people as possible and just showcase the Hero Arm and see if people, like, just fancy it, or like, just for people to see what it actually does and what it looks like and get a little bit more information about about the Hero Arm.
Basically what happens at the experience days is just that, like there's presentations from part of the team, presentation from my mother who is like head of crowdfunding. That's right. And then they get to meet everybody at the lab, they get to see how the hands are made. But it really is just that, getting a kind of taste for what the prosthetic is, whether they'd be eligible for it, and yeah, if they'd want it. All the way to the UK. Well, like basically every form of transport we're doing it. Getting to meet people too, so that'll be a lot of fun. I'm excited! I want, cuz the red one got swallowed up. How did it get swallowed up?
I didn't know how to work the machine, so I lifted it back up, and when I lifted it back— it's fine, we need that sweet energy.
I bought a beanie. Spontaneously from H&M and some fluffy like sneakers. I'm obsessed. I want to do my radio. This is the beanie vibe.
We're out for a pint.
Hi, Kaya! Hi, Elder! The process just— that's my mom. Look at my hair. Tomorrow is our first experience day on the road. Going to get myself sorted, pick out an outfit for tomorrow, and I'll see you in the morning. Bright and early, hot breakfast. He's not panning, but it's embarrassing.
Yeah, that's what I do. Like, I don't look really happy. You don't like the size? This is the outfit of the day.
This jumper I bought yesterday, um, it's called— it says The Lost Boys, which is probably a film from the '80s that I haven't seen, so sorry. We'll have to— what's the problem? We have to go get the balloons. We've got loads of balloons ordered. I've been given the task of sorting out the playlist through the speakers.
Let's go!
What's the vibe? Kind of a little party, not too loud, but kind of with a beat. Something like very— how about really, really loud? We're running to get the balloons because we're late. Oh, this is the shop we got my jumper from, by the way. Damaged Society, that's the one. Edgy, I like it.
Recommend.
What the hell?
Say hi.
Hello, we're finished. I can't see the camera either, but it's Oh cool, look at the hand! There's actually tough competition this time. Yeah, I haven't won. You haven't? Clap when they're wrong, they clap harder. Yeah, so we're trying to figure out how to judge the hand drawing competition because it's biased. Yeah, it's biased. We're just discussing how we're gonna take the Stormtrooper to Glasgow with us.
You can sit in between us.
Yeah. Guys, we're trying to get in the car, go to Glasgow, got a 4-hour drive. Guess what? Elder and my mom's went off and the car won't start. We've been manically calling people like, what do we do?
Um, I will update you. Done the morning packing from Glasgow.
Away till day 2. Also, this hotel is super cute. It's like, it's all tartan, like it's actually— it's so Christmassy.
I love it.
I'm in the reception of at the new hotel waiting for the balloon lady. You know, yesterday we had to pick up the balloons. The balloon lady's coming to us, which is great news. And this is a really, a really nice hotel, pretty swanky. We didn't stay here though, we'll just sleep at the event. So I never found balloon woman, but the balloons are here, so I assume she got here. This is your table. Oh, get in. We'd let you sit in there with the arms so then people can come to you.
Okay, cool.
Okay, lovely. Thank you. Let's go! Okay, that is day 2 of the OB tour in Glasgow complete. It was a lot more chill today. There was a lot less kids running about screaming. It was like mainly adults, and then we had one little girl. Now we're in the car and we're heading somewhere. To drive onto a ferry to get us to Belfast. And I've never been on a ferry before except for like a tourist, like, Spanish thing. Like, you know, like the little ferries that like take you like a speedboat across like to some random island. I've done one of them before, like, but I've never actually been on like a ferry ferry, you know what I mean? So I'm kind of looking forward to this. I don't really know what to expect. We're getting a ferry today.
A ferry! There's water.
Oh my God, there's literally water. Yeah, guys, I'm terrified of whales.
Here we go.
There's literally water underneath us. That's so weird. Oh my God. That's water.
That's the deep sea.
Oh man, this is a cute one. The heck, what are these chocolates?
Aww, sleep.
Day 3, apparently this is the busiest day. Some of these people who are just by the reception have literally even traveled from Romania, like Romania, to be here today in Belfast. So that's wild. Gonna make sure it's a good day for them and the travel was worth it. And yeah, they're in for their appointment now with Hilda, I think. Oh my gosh, guys, that is a wrap! The first tour, we did it! We literally just finished and I came in here because this is routine. I went to take my makeup off. No, I keep my eyes alright, my eyes are fine, but like my skin just needs to breathe. It needed moisturise and I was just like, get it off my face. It's been a great routine, I've been enjoying it. Self-care, guys, self-care. But yeah, that was the Ulby tour wrapped up. We've hit Leeds, Glasgow, and Belfast. I think Katya wants to do a southern one as well, so who knows if I'll be a part of that. We'll see. I think all of us have been so tired. Like, we're so like, 3 is enough right now for like this sort of tour. We've all been pretty tired, but also like just so on the go like 24/7, but still having so much energy because obviously it's exciting stuff. Like now I think we all just want to go out for a pint and go to sleep. It's been so good though, like honestly so successful. So many people have found out that they're eligible for the Hero Arm, even people who are like really, really young and can't actually get fit with it right now are gonna start their fundraising journeys and everything just to make sure because they, they're eligible for it and they can use it. And that's always the greatest news to come from these events. Now I'm in bed in our hotel in Glasgow. We're just actually in the same hotel as the conference room that we've just been doing the event in, and we're gonna go out like I said for a pint, have a drink or something. I think we're also looking for a Chinese restaurant because Chinese, am I right? That's us finished. Tonight we don't have to do anything. Our plane home— or me and my mom's plane home to Newcastle in the morning is like, we're going to be there by like half 8 or something. So yeah, now we're finished. This is time for celebration and chilling out. Accomplishment. It's honestly been so good though. Like, I've had such a good time meeting everybody. It's been awesome. I love it here, guys, guys, guys! We're wrapped! Where are we going? We're going to a Chinese restaurant!
