Free 3D Hands

01/04/2026

We’re just a couple of weeks out from our Design Centre Open Day on Friday 17th April 💙🦾 If you’d like to come down and see what we do and more importantly why we do it, we’d love to welcome you into the lab.
Tours are filling quickly and bookings are essential, so make sure you secure your spot here:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1557376
We’re really looking forward to opening our doors and sharing what we’ve been working on.
Hope to see you there 💙

12/03/2026

It’s happening again!!!
The Helping Hands Running Festival is returning to the beautiful Lake Guthridge in Sale this October. Last year the event raised an incredible $80,000 for Free 3D Hands, all thanks to Chris and the amazing runners who came together to make it happen.
For a small charity like ours, organising an event of this scale would be incredibly difficult. For Chris to take this on and rally the community behind Free 3D Hands means the world to us.
This event celebrates people living with limb difference, creating a safe and inclusive space while helping us continue our mission of providing free assistive devices to those who need them most.
Registrations are now open if you’d like to run, volunteer, or come along to support. It’s going to be a fantastic weekend.
See you in Sale! 🦾💙

06/03/2026

On this International Women's Day, we would like to celebrate the incredible achievement of Layne Paull who was recognised yesterday as a finalist for the NSW Young Woman of the Year Award.

Layne is studying biomedical engineering at University of Technology Sydney, and is a young leader with a passion for inclusion, innovation and community service. She volunteers her time with an inclusive Nippers program at the North Avoca Life Saving Club, Disabled Surfers Association, and as a leader at AMP CAMP.

Last year, Layne drove over 1000km down to Phillip Island to volunteer for two weeks with Free 3D Hands. In July, Layne will return to complete a six month internship with Free 3D Hands as part of her course requirements. We are very proud of you Layne!

And we are very proud of all of the incredible women in our team who are leading the way towards making assistive technology accessible to all.

Thanks Yuka. Thanks Caro. Thanks Leanne. Thanks Claire.

Mat xo 😊🦾💙

19/02/2026

Every year, Richard Large brings people together to support a charity. This Sunday 22 February, he’ll be riding again to raise funds for Free 3D Hands as part of the annual Gippsland Ouest Classique on the quiet country roads near Loch.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of the community, he has already raised $7,240, surpassing his $6,000 goal- but every extra donation will help even more people.

If you’re able, please consider supporting this amazing community fundraiser and helping Richard go even further. 🚴‍♂️🚴🚴‍♀️💙

Donate here:

Do you want to join me in making a difference? I'm raising money in aid of Free 3D Ha… Richard Large needs your support for Raising funds for Free 3D Hands

22/12/2025

As we wrap up the year, we wanted to share a few highlights from our December newsletter for anyone who may have missed it. It’s been an incredible year filled with innovation, generosity, and some truly special moments made possible by our community.
If you’d like to help us keep creating free assistive devices for people around the world in 2026, a donation at this time of year makes a real difference.💙
Thank you for being part of our journey.
Donate via https://free3dhands.org/donate/

19/12/2025

Thanks you for all the incredible support we’ve received in 2025, it has been a truly amazing year and we can’t wait to hit the ground running in 2026. 🦾
We’ll be out of the design centre from 20 December to 5 January while we take a short break.
Wishing everyone a happy, safe, and well-deserved festive season. 💙

18/12/2025

On December 3rd and 4th, I attended the 2025 iREX International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. It was amazing to see the amount of innovation happening around the world in robotics.
What was apparent was how a lot of Japanese innovation is focussed on factory automation, with Chinese manufacturers leading the way with humanoid robotics. It seems like there is a lot of competition within China to become suppliers for large scale manufacturers like the pending Tesla Optimus humanoid robot. In order for humanoid robots to be useful, hand dexterity is extremely important, and a lot of focus is being placed on this.
I'm not particularly interested in the rise of humanoid robots, but I know that through the advancement of this technology, it will also have a positive impact on bionic arm development to better serve the limb difference community.
The highlight of the visit was making friends with a Chinese company making linear actuators and components for robotic hands. Once I showed them one of our latest prototypes and explained that we provide our assistive devices for free, they offered to supply us with free components for our low cost bionic arm. Wow... It was definitely worth the visit, and I'm very excited about the innovation our team will continue on with into the new year.

Mat xo 😊🦾💙

03/12/2025

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the "Be the Change" summit in Tokyo to watch young Lois and her classmates present their project to the children of the world. We first made Lois a 3D hand when she was just 6 years old, and over the years we have made her new hands and all kinds of assistive devices as she has grown. Lois is now in Year 7, and she has made her own Kinetic Hand at school with her teacher and classmates. Lois has done Australia very proud, and is such an incredible role model and advocate for the limb difference community.

Mat xo 😊💙🦾

27/11/2025

We are so proud of young Lois. What an incredible advocate and role model she is for the limb difference community. 💙

Lois was born missing part of her left hand but, with the help of her classmates, 3D printed her own hand.

10/11/2025

As kids grow, we grow with them.
We had a lovely visit from one of our first Kinetic Arm recipients and her family when she came to Phillip Island and picked up two new arms.
During the visit, Lexi spotted her photo on our recipient wall, which is a lovely reminder of how far she has come and how our journey continues together.
We are so thankful to our amazing supporters who make these moments possible. Make a tax deductible donation today. https://free3dhands.org/donate/

07/11/2025

A year later and one of our first Kinetic Arm recipients has outgrown her arm, so we made her a couple more. She was so confident and made using it look so easy! 💙🦾

31/10/2025

Here is a shot of one of our recipients discussing her new Kinetic Hand and showing amazing confidence at show and tell. She also loves to Rock Out!💙🤘