Veteran with spinal cord injury first to receive Jaco arm

A former Paratrooper, who was paralysed in an accident, has told how he can feed himself for the first time in 17 years after being given a Jaco arm.

Military veteran Jon Noble is only the second person in the UK to own a JACO assistive robotic arm, which is mounted on a power wheelchair, thanks to funding from military charities Support Our Paras, Blesma The Limbless Veterans, Help for Heroes, Royal British Legion and ABF The Soldiers Charity and case working and liaison support from SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity.

The 38-year-old, from Hampshire who was badly injured in a road traffic accident in 2003, which left him as a C4 tetraplegic, said: "I cannot wait to hand my dad a pint for the first time and socialise with friends who I have shied away from since leaving service.”

With his sole but limited control of his daily life being through a chin-operated joystick on his electric wheelchair, Jon was left feeling like a “talking mouth with no purpose”, feeling so bad that he even avoided seeing friends. However, the carbon fiber weather resistant JACO arm is already giving him a improved quality of life.

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