Following a holiday to Turkey late last summer, the lives of Malcolm and his wife Janis from Edinburgh were turned upside down.
Hit by food poisoning on the trip, Malcolm spent a week ill in bed. His symptoms only worsened when he returned home to the point where he could no longer feed or clothe himself. Malcolm was soon after diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease called Guillain-Barre syndrome and became paralysed from the neck down.
Over Christmas, due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and as Malcolm remained in the hospital, he unable to see any family.
“On Christmas Day I was allowed into the hospital for an hour,” said Janis, Malcolm’s wife. “But no other family members, including his daughters and grandchildren, were able to see him for the ten months he was in hospital.”
Searching for a way to speak with her husband, and a way for him to contact her independently, Janis contacted Gain, the Guillain-Barre syndrome charity. They recommended Amazon Echo as an ideal device for the couple to call each other hands-free.
Malcolm says that Echo and Alexa have made his life easier, reducing the sense of isolation from friends and family during lockdown and hospitalisation, and most importantly bringing him closer to Janis and family members while the pandemic kept them apart.
“The hospital team who looked after me were wonderful, but I missed Janis and the rest of the family,” said Malcolm. “Alexa connected me to a friendly face and a familiar voice and that contact really helped me on tough days.”
Janis is now raising money for the Gain charity by running the equivalent distance between Land’s End and John O’Groats—874 miles in total!
Through his determination and positive attitude, Malcolm can now stand and sit in his wheelchair, and has continued to use Alexa since returning home. Malcolm uses the device for watching his favourite TV programmes and films, listening to audio books, and completing day to day tasks – all using his voice.
“I might never be able to be as active as I was, but technology like Alexa has helped my road to recovery so far. I will never stop attempting to improve and I’m not going to give up,” he said.
Dennis Stansbury, Alexa UK Country Manager, added: “It’s so inspirational to hear Malcolm’s story and we’re proud that Alexa was able to lend a helping hand during what must have been a difficult situation for him and his wife Janis. Alexa is always getting smarter and evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers.”
Since Alexa and Echo first launched nearly eight years ago, they have become a staple in many homes—whether as a kitchen aid to help with recipes, to help wake you up and prepare for your morning ahead, or even give you fun ideas for how to spend your day.
Over time, Alexa’s skillset has evolved to include features and functionality that can improve the freedom and independence of everyone, including older adults and people with disabilities.
These include the Show and Tell feature launched last year, our collaboration with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), and access to general health information from the NHS website.
If you have a story of your own about how you use Alexa, Amazon would love to hear it – email AlexaStories@amazon.com or tag Amazon on Twitter and Instagram using #AlexaStories.