The Aussie invention every cyclist needs

Source: News.com.au, March 2016

AN AUSTRALIAN woman whose beloved father died from melanoma after a lifetime spent in the sun, has invented a sunsafe bike visor in the hope of protecting others from the deadly skin cancer.

Lydia Callaghan, a software designer and 46-year-old mother of two, spent $140,000 bequeathed by her late father to develop the Bouclier visor, in his memory. Dad Michael Callaghan, a former television executive, died in 2011 aged 74.

“My father swam every day at Coogee Beach and loved tennis passionately,” says Ms. Callaghan, who grew up in Coogee but now lives in Palo Alto, California.

“In fact, it would have been hard to meet a healthier man. He lived on salads and seafood, exercised regularly and consumed a strict regimen of vitamins, minerals and dietary supplements.

“As a younger man he was an elite tennis player, and his big claim to fame was he took Rod Laver to five sets at the 1957 Australian Hard Court Championship. The tragedy was that when he was young, there was no sunscreen in his otherwise healthy Australian childhood. Back then, people didn’t wear hats and didn’t wear sunscreen because they didn’t realise how harmful the sun can be.”