A BANKIE business owner who “grew up with nothing” has recently been awarded almost £50,000 to help save the lives of asthma sufferers - and has told young locals to reach for the stars in order to achieve their dreams.

Frank Quinn, who grew up in Singer Street and now lives in Duntocher, ran his QF Communications office in Clyde Street in the 1980s, selling mobile phones to businesses in Clydebank.

“I grew up with nothing, so I suppose that was the drive in creating my own business,” Frank told the Post. “I was always very good at sales for other businesses, so I thought one day I would give it a go myself and here I am many years later.”

Now, Frank owns a firm called QIoT, based in Paisley. The company is building a so-called “citizen network” across the UK that has become so advanced, it’s now in partnership with BT, SAS, IBAM and Edinburgh Napier University to pave the way for the future of data and health technologies.

Frank said: “We connect medical devices and extract the usage data, which we send to health professionals, helping them better manage patient symptoms in real time.”

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And his company has now been awarded almost £50,000 by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, to develop a connected inhaler. This will automatically share erratic or unexpected inhaler usage with health professionals to facilitate lifesaving, earlier intervention.

Frank said: “Two-thirds of all asthma attacks and deaths are preventable, if only inhaler medication was taken as and when prescribed.

“Until now physicians have had no way of knowing if their guidance is being followed – by connecting inhalers with our technology, we’re able to remotely monitor usage which physicians overlay with prescribed usage.”

Frank admits it takes a great deal of “grit” to get through the hard, early days of a business.

“If you’re tenacious and enough, and have the grit and determination then that will carry you through the first six months of the business.

“Take advice from those who have run businesses, talk to government support agencies to help you create the correct foundations, never stop selling and be prepared to take good with the bad – there’s always something around the next corner.”