Robin Cavendish

Robin Francis Cavendish, MBE (12 March 1930 – 8 August 1994), was a British advocate for disabled people, medical aid developer, and one of the longest-lived responauts in Britain. Born in Middleton, Derbyshire, Cavendish was affected by polio at the age of 28. Despite being initially given only three months to live, Cavendish, paralysed from the neck down and able to breathe only with the use of a mechanical ventilator, became a tireless advocate for disabled people, instrumental in organising the first records of the number of responauts in Britain and helping to develop numerous devices to provide independence to paralyzed people. He was a member of the Cavendish family.

Early life and career Robin Francis Cavendish was born 12 March 1930 in Middleton, Derbyshire, England. He attended Winchester College. He attended Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the 60th Rifles, of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, spending seven years in the Army, eventually attaining the rank of captain. He left the Army to join Thompson Smithett in starting up a tea-broking business in Kenya. In 1957, he married Diana Blacker and returned to Kenya. They had a son, Jonathan.

Polio diagnosis and subsequent career In December 1958, while in Kenya, Cavendish became ill with polio. Because he was paralysed from the neck down, a Nairobi doctor put him on a mechanical respirator that Cavendish needed to breathe, making him a "responaut". Cavendish flew back to England. He was initially given only three months, and then one year, to live.

In November 2017 Cavendish and Diana were awarded the Patient Innovation Lifetime Achievement Award for their work in developing innovations and advocating for people with disabilities. The award was announced by Nobel Laureate Sir Richard J. Roberts, a member of the advisory board of Patient Innovation and of the Jury of the Awards, addressed the audience in the Awards Ceremony at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

An Oxfordshire Blue Plaque was unveiled on his former home in Drayton St Leonard on 16 June 2019.

In media Cavendish's son, Jonathan Cavendish, a film producer who runs the production company The Imaginarium Studios with actor/director Andy Serkis, commissioned writer William Nicholson to write a screenplay on his father's life and work. The film, Breathe, which is directed by Serkis, premiered in October 2017. In the film, Cavendish is portrayed by Andrew Garfield.