In this vlog, Tilly Lockey documents the southern leg of the OB Tour, a series of on‑site Hero Arm experience days designed to bring the prosthetic technology to users outside the Bristol lab. The tour visits Maidstone (Kent), Brighton, and Southampton, where Tilly and her team set up conference rooms, give presentations, run assessments, and demonstrate how to use the Hero Arm. Throughout the trip she shares travel logistics, hotel stays, meals, and personal moments (including a rainy car ride, balloon‑collecting mishaps, and a dinner in Brighton). A recurring “balloon experiment” tests how many balloons are needed to lift a Hero Arm off the floor, providing a light‑hearted visual motif. Tilly also highlights fan engagement, such as meeting a devoted follower who mimics her Instagram posts and delivering a personal message to a viewer named Caitlin about receiving her own Hero Arm. The vlog concludes with reflections comparing the South tour’s shorter travel distances to the earlier North tour, emphasizing the joy of connecting with users and the ongoing development of future prosthetic arms.
Chapters
It's time for OB tour part 2. It's not a road trip. I'm doing all the navigation. Let's go. Where's the station? This is the station. Trying the Pret smoothie, the green one. Tastes healthy in a good way. Okay, I think now in the car while I'm alone is a good time to tell you what we are doing in today's video. So OB Tour, honestly the whole explanation for it is on the OB Tour North video which I did first. So if you want to have a full explanation, then that's on there. Basically what the OB Tour is, is that we hold experience days which usually happen in Bristol at the lab but on the road so that people people don't need to travel to Bristol. I need it a little bit more local. So previously we've hit Leeds, Belfast, and somewhere in Scotland— Glasgow, I think. I'll double check. That was the North tour, and now it's time for the South tour. We are hitting Maidstone, which is in Kent, and then Brighton, and then Southampton. So yeah, some people are here along doing little first assessments and things. Answering questions, demonstrating how to use it, meeting people who want new arms. My boyfriend's from Tunbridge, which is like a bus away from Maidstone, so he was buzzing. It was a bus away, so I'm gonna meet up with him and I'm gonna go out for like pasta or something. I'm so excited. Also, it's literally raining out and I'm wearing these. Bear in mind, these are my little sister's trousers, but they're still too long. It's low-key flooded outside, so bottoms of them are already soggy, but It's all right. Back to blasting 5 sauce in the car. I've had like 3 breakfasts just because I've been up since 6. Loving it. I've just been sat in the car. Mum ran in literally 15 minutes to collect the balloons or pay for the balloons or whatever, and this guy, while it was in the car, started sticking a fucking ticket on. I know it was so awkward, like I was trying to avoid eye contact, but we looked at each other like a solid 4 times. And I was just like, not happy. Mom's fuming. Not happy. Oh, 49 minutes, 15 minutes max. It was so awkward. So annoyed. Anyway, we made it. Where's my suitcase? Hotel number 1, 2 double beds. Roommates down. Have you watched that as well? Oh guys, he watches my YouTube videos. Coconut ice cream, and it's so like— it's— yeah, it's like rock solid. I'm leaving. Wait, I sounded happy. I will see you on Friday night. Friday night, going to find my mummy in the car. Can't go in the shower. I've got to get everything sorted, presentation sorted. I'm gonna get everything sorted for tomorrow and then made Good morning, it is day 1 in Maidstone. We're gonna go down to meet people for breakfast, and then I actually haven't seen the conference room yet, so go have a look at that and put all the suitcases in the car because we're straight to Brighton tonight. Right, I need to go get the balloons, get looking like the party that it is, and then I'm gonna blast music again because that's like my job here. Lots and lots of balloons. Um, so we need to get another 2 bags, and it's a pretty balloon center. It's pretty full. We'll find out how that works. Um, so this is the sitch. This is me in the front of the car in my seat. That is my presentation done, Mom's presentation done, introductions done, morning done. We're gonna go get some lunch, which I'm so excited for. Excited for lunch! And then I'm just waiting for Mom. Where's my mom? This is my hand I went for the spider theme. I actually love it, might be my favorite I've done. I'm gonna add some color. Elder seems to think that if we attach enough balloons to the hands, it will float. This is a very important experiment. No, what? More balloons? It was. If this actually works, I'll be shocked. Oh, it's not far though. Made it to Brighton. Drive was fine, it was literally only like an hour 7 minutes. I'm just so tired, like I just feel like I haven't even woken up today yet. I must have woken up in like deep sleep rather than light sleep like you're supposed to, because this whole day I've just been like ready for a nap, to be honest. And it's only day 1, but today went really, really good, like really successful. People like were just hanging around afterwards, and that's always really nice when that happens because that just proved like they're comfy and they're having a good time and they just want to chat with us, which is really, really nice. Good feedback, eligible to get some arms, so That's the best news. And I'm absolutely starving. This is my first time ever in Brighton, and I've always wanted to come to Brighton, so I'm actually really excited for today and just to be in the area. I'm so hungry. We're gonna wait for Elda and Katya to come, and then we'll pick where we're gonna eat. I am gonna get into some comfy stuff. I just need to be in my comfy attire, take the makeup off. Headed to dinner. We're at— where are we? Al Duomo. Italian. Yum. It is day 2. We're in Brighton. Last night in Brighton, we went out for a lovely meal. The restaurant was Al Duomo, or Al Duomo. I don't know, I'm not Italian, don't know how to pronounce it. Correct me if you are and you know how to say it. But it was unreal. Honestly beautiful, loved it so much. I had arancini and carbonara, carbonara being my latest obsession. And I'm also trying to learn how to cook it really nice because I'm getting old now. I need to start learning how to like cook and things. Today's actually really quiet though, like there's not too many people who are at this one in Brighton, so this is like our chill one. So who knows, maybe we'll even have enough time to like nip out and go to the beach, and then straight after we'll go straight to North— not Northampton, Southampton, bunk down there. It's our final place. The true reason we get balloons at all these events is literally just to test how many balloons it takes to lift a hero arm off the floor. We've done this in like every place. Operation: get this hero arm to float via balloons. Can we do it? Can we not? I was really convinced that was gonna work. It's— it kind of works. Show them the resistance. Maybe put it in the middle. Oh my gosh, it literally does lift a little bit. It is like— it's— oh man, we just need probably that again, those balloons again. I mean, no, who does this? Yay! You're so good. She's so good and she's only had it 20 minutes. Finally found a place and a minute to sit down and edit this YouTube video. I've got so much to add. Got my little hot chocolate. Last day we are in Southampton, and today's a medium day, not too much to stress about. A good amount of people coming. There's also a girl who's apparently a massive fan of me who's coming. She literally copies all my Instagram posts and everything, like the poses, and she's just got her hero on, and they've went out of their way to be here today. So excited to meet her. Bless her so much for coming. Yeah, this is the last day. I've also been collecting stickers on the back of my phone at every event cuz Katja hands out all these stickers to go with the Decorate a Hero Arm Challenge, and some of them are really cute, to be honest. Anyways, going to go down for breakfast now, meet up with Velda and Katja and grab something to eat. Then we will see you in the event room. Just the fact that, um, they couldn't move. So weird how that works. Hey Caitlin, it's Tilly. I just found out some awesome news that you're gonna get your very own Hero Arm. I just wanted to let you know that I'm I'm so excited for you. Draw loads of pictures, play all sorts of games, high fives. You're gonna have so much fun just playing around, experimenting, seeing what you can do. So, so, so happy for you. You'll have to tell me what color you're getting. Best of luck with it all. Southampton done, and that's a wrap. This trip has obviously been way less full-on than the North one, or so you'd think, because if you watch the North vlog I did of that, I'll be told we were getting ferries, every mode of transport basically. We'd have it. I even got a plane back home, and I think the drives between have only been like an hour to 2 hours, like no longer than that though. But it's been just as busy, like, and like crazy and like full-on. Again, so happy to have been able to go on this tour though, and it just makes me the happiest to have success with it and people see the Hero Arm, learn that they can use it, or even if they're preparing for like the next arms that we're working on and have feedback to give on that. It's like the best thing ever. I really appreciate it, love it every time. I'll always take you along with me because it's just meaningful. Like, it really does mean a lot. It's very like dear and sentimental for me. But yeah, that's a wrap. I really hope you enjoyed this video. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe if you did. I love you all so much, and I'll see you all next time. Bye!
