At just 18 years old, Macinley Butson has already come up with an invention to help save lives.

The teenager from Wollongong is the young woman behind SMART Armour - and she was named 2018 NSW Young Australian of the Year as well as New Gen Innovator at the Women of Style Awards this year.

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Butson's invention is designed to shield women from the harmful effects of radiation during breast cancer treatment.

The SMART Armour is handmade from scale maille - a type of medieval armour - and it absorbs the excess radiation, protecting the patient's skin from burning, while also reducing the patient's risk of developing another form of cancer in the long-term.

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"This idea for SMART Armour just started as a conversation at the dinner table," Butson said.

"Dad works in the field, and he mentioned that women who are undergoing radiotherapy breast cancer treatment do get some radiation delivered to the other breast.

"This is an incredibly important and imperative treatment - and I wanted to improve it to aid their outcomes however I could."

The next stage

Butson has been perfecting the project since she was in Year 10, and is now seeking hospitals to trial her SMART Armour.

"We're happy to donate the SMART Armour to any hospital who's willing to pick it up and run testing on it," Butson said.

"There's a principle in radiotherapy called the ALARA principle, which stands for As Little As Reasonably Achievable.

"So anything that's going to aid in radiation therapy to reduce any excess is going to help.

"So we're willing to donate this to hospitals who are willing to give it a go."

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