Macinley Butson is yet to graduate high school, but her invention could change the lives of breast cancer sufferers.

The 17-year-old is New South Wales’s Young Australian of the Year and is the mastermind behind SMART Armour, a device designed to shield a healthy breast from harmful radiation treatment.

She’s also just been named in The Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence for 2018.

Macinley tells Alan Jones she began questioning why a woman’s healthy breast wasn’t being protected a number of years ago.

“I was in Year 10 at the time and I couldn’t really understand why there wasn’t more being done about it.

“There was radiation being received by the other breast during their treatment.”

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Image: TEDx Talks