B.C. teen wins global entrepreneur contest with marine safety invention

OAK BAY, B.C. -

Liam Pope-Lau will never forget that windy day on the water that changed everything.

“It was one of my earlier days in sailing,” the now 14-year-old recalls. “So I wasn’t as good at keeping my boat under control.”

And he certainly wasn’t capable of keeping his boat from capsizing that day, or himself from plunging into the ocean.

“And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’” Liam says. “‘This is extremely cold.’”

But to appreciate what happened next, we need to go back a few years, to when Liam had a conversation with his grandma about seniors in care homes.

“I was really concerned that they were feeling lonely,” Liam says.

So Liam started writing letters to random seniors, enlisting his Grade 2 classmates to do the same, and delivered more than 200 cards to retirement homes on Valentine's Day.

“I really wanted to make sure they would feel the love,” Liam says. “And be supported and valued in our community.”

So Liam expanded his project the next year, inspiring students in all grades at his school to send cards.

“It was incredible to see that,” Liam says. “That one of your ideas could help people.”

Which is why years later — after being rescued from the ocean — Liam wondered if he could help people facing hypothermia.

“I guess I just like to look stuff up,” Liam laughs about his compulsion to research.

But Liam couldn’t find a fix to the situation he’d been in, so he decided to create his own solution to the hypothermia problem.

“I kind of used little bits of previous knowledge,” Liam says. “So I could piece together a puzzle.”

What Liam pieced together was a self-heating life jacket, featuring a pouch filled with chemicals that react with water, keeping you warm for more than an hour.

“It will prevent hypothermia,” Liam says. “And prolong your chances of survival.”

The invention — called LifeHeat — has won multiple top prizes at provincial and national science and technology contests, and recently beat out 10,000 students from 161 countries in a global entrepreneurship competition for first place.

“I see big things in [Liam’s] future,” Oak Bay Coun. Hazel Braithwaite says. “He’s going to do something phenomenal.”

Hazel founded the annual YES awards in recognition of exceptional youth in her community, which Liam recently won — and praises the 14-year-old’s ingenuity and initiative.

“He doesn’t just sit back and wait for someone else to do it,” Hazel says. “He just jumps in and tries it himself.”

And Liam always seems to be thinking of others. He’s investing thousand of dollars in prize money to continue developing LifeHeat to create a viable version to support marine workers. And, after eight years, he’s still producing his Valentines for seniors project.

“When you’re engaged with the community and all the people around you,” Liam says. “You realize all the things you can improve.”