Samford sophomore’s caregiver app Bearing Life tops 1,000 downloads in two months

A 20-year-old Samford University sophomore has turned a question he could not answer about his own family into a caregiving app that just crossed 1,000 downloads.  

“We realized that we wouldn’t know our own moms’ allergies or blood types, and if something were to happen, we simply wouldn’t be ready for our own family,” said Preston Vigil, co-founder of Bearing Life.  

Vigil and co-founder Payton Stroop, a friend since seventh grade, began talking seriously about building something together in May. Bearing Life launched on the App Store and Google Play in September.  

The app gives families one place to store a parent’s medications, appointments, documents and emergency information. The family caregiver can invite siblings and other relatives and choose exactly what each person can see.  

“Everyone can look up things instead of having to text the same person every time,” Vigil said.

  

That problem came from the families the founders interviewed. Vigil said one person, usually the family caregiver, tends to hold everything about a parent’s care in a group text, a camera roll or a paper binder.  

“They have to scroll through thousands of photos, or it’s a random paper binder,” he said. “We really built Bearing Life to give that one person one place for all of that.”  

Over the past 30 days, Vigil said, he has spoken at caregiver groups, support groups, respite programs and churches across Birmingham and Hoover. Being a Samford student has helped open those doors, he said.  

“It was very eye opening, honestly, to see how much they really are desperate for help,” Vigil said. He noticed that when someone in a group recommended a doctor, everyone wrote it down.  

Families who download the app are greeted by Bo, an avatar who walks them through setup with a series of questions and suggests information to add. Vigil said ease of setup has been the most common feedback so far.

The app also includes a Bearing Score, which rises as families add information such as blood type, allergies, medications, insurance cards and primary doctors. Vigil described it as an honest gauge of how prepared a family would be if a parent fell and ended up in the emergency room.  

Daily check-ins let the app gauge how a caregiver is doing, and Vigil said the goal is to avoid making Bearing Life feel like a homework assignment.  

The founders have several appearances lined up. Vigil recorded an interview with iHeartMedia that is set to air this weekend across 60 channels, and he is scheduled for a Fox 4 News segment around Thanksgiving.  

In January, he will speak to a United Way caregiver support group and to a leadership meeting of all 30 senior centers in Jefferson County.  

Looking ahead, Vigil said the team plans to meet with more estate attorneys, financial planners and social workers in the Birmingham area. Families have also asked for wearable device support for parents with dementia who experience sundowning, similar to the way Life360 tracks family members.

  

He also floated the idea of a QR code families could post on a refrigerator, so a first responder could scan it and reach critical information.  

Vigil acknowledged that security is a major concern for any app that holds health details and said it has  been a top priority for the team. 

For Vigil, the mission matters more than the product.  

“We’ve never lived a caregiver crisis, but we have recognized that it was a real problem,” he said. “That’s somebody’s mother that needs help. That’s someone’s daughter.”  

Vigil said Bearing Life is “not just being an app, but being an opportunity to serve these families.”