macinley-butson-bhp-2017

[Music plays and images of award participants flash by on screen. Text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Image changes to show Macinley Butson walking into a lounge room, picking up a laptop and then sitting on the couch]

[Image changes to show Macinley smiling at the camera]

Macinley Butson: Hi, I’m Macinley Butson and I’m in Year 10 and my project was the Breast Shield.

[Image changes to show Macinley holding her project for the camera to see]

My project was creating a device to improve the outcomes for woman in cancer treatment. I’ve tested multiple designs and materials to find the optimal shield and I found that I was able to reduce the dose delivered to the contralateral breast by up to 75 per cent.

[Image changes to show Macinley seated on a couch and talking to the camera]

What this means is that I’m able to reduce the chance of another cancer forming and reduce skin burning. My great grandmother died from breast cancer, so this is an issue that’s close to the heart of our family.

[Image changes to show Macinley seated at a table and working on a laptop]

Cancer treatment is scary enough as it is, so with the breast shield that’s able to take away some of the worries and anxieties that woman may feel during this treatment.

[Image changes back to show Macinley seated on a couch and talking to the camera]

So who I think will benefit most from this research would be the patients who are undergoing cancer treatment because it’s able to reduce the skin burning, which is a major side effect that these people go through,

[Image changes to show Macinley’s breast shield being tested]

and also it minimises the chance of another cancer forming from treatment, so definitely the patient.

[Image changes to show Macinley seated and working on her project]

Finding a material for my breast shield was probably the biggest problem that I faced. Trying to find one that fit all of the criteria that I had for my device, it had to be non-toxic, but it still had to be strong enough to stop the radiation beams and other criteria, it became quite a difficulty and I just did this through trial and error, testing heaps of different materials.

[Image changes to show Macinley seated on a couch and talking to the camera]

I was definitely a very curious child, I was quite a creative child as well, I loved drawing, I loved dancing and art and craft, I’d spend hours at the table making little laptops out of paper and that sort of stuff, and I’d always be outside constantly looking in the garden.

[Image changes to show Macinley seated and playing a set of drums]

So yeah, I was definitely a curious child. In my spare time I really like dancing, I spent a lot of time during ballet and I also like to sing and play drums.

Science and engineering, you have to have that curiosity about you, you have to have a want to know more and I think if that’s a natural thing and that comes so easily to someone, they should follow that. I think science, in the future, will become very complex, very quickly, and I hope that as more global problems arise people will look to STEM to provide answers.

[Image changes to show Macinley seated on a couch and talking to the camera]

My passion for science is definitely going to take me places, and I don’t know where that is, but I’m excited just for the ride.

[Music plays and text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Sponsors logos appear on screen]