Octave Design Services Ltd. was launched as a business in June 2018 following a traumatic 6 months for Director, Carl and Shareholder, Ali between October 2017 and March 2018.
Within this period, Carl & Ali were unable to work due to their son, Charlie being diagnosed with a serious heart condition called Dilated Cardiomyopathy at just 9 months old. Prior to this, Carl was working as a Contractor and Ali was working as a Youth Offending Officer. Ali was pregnant expecting twin girls.
Charlie, Carl, Lizzy, Ali, Rosie, Christmas 2018
Ronald McDonald House, Alder Hey
On Monday 16th October 2017, Carl was called home from work and met Ali and Charlie at the local GP, where Charlie was atruggling to breathe. They were then sent in an ambulance to Warrington Hospital, where Charlie was assessed overnight with a possible diagnosis of bronchiolitis.
On Tuesday 17th October, Charlie had a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated and transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital where Carl and Ali were told that Charlie had Dilated Cardiomyopathy and was in heart failure; that they should prepare themselves for the worst.
Over 4 days the team at Alder Hey were able to stabilise Charlie. We were fortunate to be able to stay with him and given a room at Ronald McDonald House Charity accomodation in the hospital grounds. On day 5 Charlie was transferred to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle where he was placed on the urgent heart transplant list.
Charlie, January 2018 on urgent waiting list at Newcastle Freeman Hospital
Charlie, Summer 2019 (post heart transplant)
Wen Carl and Ali arrived in Newcastle they were given the keys to a room in Scott House hospital accomodation provided by the charity The Sick Children’s Trust. This enabled them to be at Charlie’s bedside during the agonising wait for a donor to be found. For obvious reasons Carl was unable to work during this time; with the unpredictability of Charlie’s condition and the imminent arrival of the twins, it was impossible to focus on anything else.
Twin girls, Lizzy and Rosie, were born in January 2018 on the same day as Charlie’s first birthday. A month later Charlie underwent a successful heart transplant, making a remarkable recovery to be allowed home in March 2018.
They returned to Runcorn as a family of five and moved into a new home.
It was at this time, Carl had to turn his thoughts back to work and consider the best way to start earning a living again.
Consideration was made to going back to contract work, but as so much had changed and to allow the flexibility of staying close to his young family, Carl decided to take self-employment to the next level by launching Octave Design Services as an engineering consultancy in its own right.
In June 2018 with Bob on board, Carl launched Octave Design Services from their offices at the Heath Business and Technical Park, and Ali joined the company in 2019.
In 2019 we were awarded New Business of the Year at the Halton Business Awards, and in 2020 awarded the SME Business Elite Award for Leading Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Consultancy, Cheshire. We were also runners up at the North West Business Awards 2020 for Business of the Year under 10 employees.
In January 2021 we welcomed Matt Redmond to the team and the business continues to grow. To date we have worked with over 30 clients on over 80 projects. We are proud of what we have achieved so far and are looking forward to further growth and success.