Lesley Cartwright-Taylor began her career as a bio-scientist, working for more than 35 years in clinical and veterinary research, and had no experience designing products. However, when she had her own family, she became aware that small children had a struggle managing to walk up and down the stairs; the steps were up to their knees and the handrail was, for the most part, too high and too large to hold. The risk of a fall was all too likely.
For years Lesley assumed that a product to tackle this dangerous issue would become available as after all, stair safety is a significant concern for most parents. However, the only widely-used product for stairs was a safety gate. As practical as these gates are, they do not help a child whilst walking up and down the stairs like a handrail would; they simply help to stop access.
In 2016 Lesley decided to conduct some research regarding stair safety and was shocked to discover that in the UK, approximately 58,000 children under the age of five have accidents on the stairs, and 35,000 children under four fall down the stairs each year. In the USA the figure was almost double these figures, and these figures represented the reported accidents alone.
The Solution: A Handrail!
Lesley decided that if no one else was going to address this problem, she would try and develop a solution. To create a product like KiddieRail, she realised that she needed the help of a company with the right skills and experience. That’s why in 2020, she decided to partner up with Cardea Solutions.
Established in 1999, Cardea Solutions has 22 years of experience taking high-quality, durable and effective child safety and security products to market, Cardea recognised the huge potential in Lesley’s idea and agreed to work alongside her to make the stairs a much safer place for every child to walk up and down and in the process reduce the number of recorded accidents whilst offering parents and carers peace of mind. We are delighted to present the award-winning KiddieRail.
Testimonials
“My house has safe stairs but our in-laws’ stairs are incredibly steep so it’s really important our kids have something to grab onto that isn’t too high for them to reach safely. For that purpose KiddieRail is literally perfect – has helped to stop the visions of my children plummeting down the stairs and breaking their necks that I get every time I drop them off before work!”
“We decided to buy KiddieRail as we were worried about our two year old Granddaughter’s Katie’s safety when using the stairs. I had some concerns about fitting it, but the process was relatively easy and took me less than an hour. They even supply the string and a spirit level which is great and saves some time. Overall it was definitely worth buying the KiddieRail, we feel more relaxed when Katie is using the stairs and the product compliments the safety gates that we have installed at the top and bottom of the stairs”
“My house has safe stairs but our in-laws’ stairs are incredibly steep so it’s really important our kids have something to grab onto that isn’t too high for them to reach safely. For that purpose KiddieRail is literally perfect – has helped to stop the visions of my children plummeting down the stairs and breaking their necks that I get every time I drop them off before work!”