The Inhaler Tailor's Will Hogge from York on Dragons' Den

Two years ago The Press covered the story of York dad Will Hogge who released a range of cases that convert medical inhalers, such as those used for Asthma, into festive accessories.

The products add to a range of inhaler cases launched the same year by the York born-entrepreneur.

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Will who attended Bootham School, has previous roles including developing new brands for Proctor & Gamble in Switzerland and co-founding SQUIG square-shaped sausages, which are sold in Asda and Morrisons. He has also worked in an elephant sanctuary.

Will with one of the inhalers

Last night saw the 39-year-old looking for investment in The Inhaler Tailor in episode six of series 21 of the popular show which featured dragons Sara Davies, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Steven Bartlett as well as special guest Emma Grede.

He was asking for £80,000 for a ten per cent stake in his firm and told the dragons he’d needed to carry an inhaler all his life.

“As a kid, I just thought of it as a scary medical device and I’d really kick up a stink every time I was meant to be taking it.

“Films and TV shows still often portray people that need to use one of these as slightly weedy or nerdy.

“Together, I’m sure we can help millions of the over half a billion people round the world that have a chronic respiratory condition,” he said.

At first things looked promising with interest in the cases, which cost £12.74 each, from Deborah Meaden who was herself an asthma sufferer as a child.

But in the end he came away empty handed as Deborah said she wouldn’t invest but said she thought Will would make it without her help.

Peter Jones said it was a great product but a “one-hit wonder”.

Afterwards Will said: “The fact that they were so positive is of course really reassuring."

Some 30 of Will's inhalers are handmade every week, using environmentally-friendly vegan leather supplied from Venice, Italy.

More than 10 million people in the UK carry medical inhalers, but 86 per cent of them say there’s still some level of stigma attached, and one in two school age children say they avoid using their inhalers at school because of peer pressure.

Inhaler Tailor has begun receiving rave reviews, including one from Shakespearean actor Adrian Lester, who might be better known as Mickey Stone from the BBC series Hustle and football commentator Guy Mowbray contacted the company about football-themed cases.

Will said: “I have had hundreds of requests for football designs. They won’t be ready for the World Cup, but we should start launching designs before the end of the football season.”

For more information visit www.InhalerTailor.com

You can catch up with the episode on iPlayer here.