Kate Taylor, Founder, Evenly, with the purple plaque unveiled in her honour at Wycombe High School.
Published: February 28, 2023 | Updated: 1st March 2023
A Dorset entrepreneur who won a prestigious Women in Innovation award from Innovate UK has had a purple plaque unveiled in her honour at her former school.
Kate Taylor, Founder of Evenly, said she hoped the recognition would inspire more female entrepreneurs and innovators.
The 38-year-old, from Wimborne, established her business to tackle the lack of non-surgical solutions for the widespread and under-addressed issue of breast asymmetry.
She is helping women whose breasts sizes may differ severely due to cancer surgeries or congenital conditions such as Poland Syndrome.
Kate has developed a line of silicone Bra BalancersTM, designed to be worn in a bra on a woman’s smaller side.
The silicone mimics the weight of the missing natural breast tissue, meaning the bra can hold and distribute the weight of the wearer’s breasts more evenly.
She has also invented a pioneering patent-pending new bra design which she hopes to bring to market next year.
The purple plaque marking her achievements was unveiled at Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire.
It is Innovate UK’s twist on the blue plaques seen in the UK.
The purple plaques are being displayed at schools across the country.
They recognise the achievements of some of the 100 female innovators who have won its prestigious Women in Innovation Award.
The award holders, including Kate, also received a cash injection of £50,000 and bespoke mentoring to scale up their businesses and bring their pioneering ideas to market.
Kate, who won her Women In Innovation award in 2021, attended Wycombe High School from 1996 to 2002.
She’s pictured, right, in Year 10.
Kate said: “I have extremely fond memories of my time at Wycombe High School and always felt supported and encouraged to do my best.
“It is a huge honour to win the Women in Innovation award and also to have the plaque installed at the school, which I hope will inspire many more female entrepreneurs and innovators to come.”
Nicola Renyard, Wycombe High Headteacher, said: “We are really proud of all the many former Wycombe High students who have gone on to achieve so many great things after leaving school.
“Kate is clearly one of them
“We are so delighted that she chose Wycombe High School as the permanent home for her special purple plaque.
“It will now be a permanent symbol and a reminder of the many accomplishments of our alumnae as well as an inspiration to existing students.”
Innovate UK launched Women in Innovation in 2016, after research revealed that just one in seven applications for Innovate UK support came from women.
The aim was to get more women with excellent ideas innovating within UK businesses.
It’s estimated that boosting the number of female entrepreneurs could deliver £180 billion to the economy.
