Emergency ID products to raise funds for charities
Howard Lake | 16 July 2015 | News
A Colchester-based charity worker has developed a range of high-visibility In Case of Emergency ID products which are being sold to generate funds for charities.
ICEtell‘s first trading partnership is with the Stroke Association where £1 will be donated to the charity for every ICEtell product sold direct.
Founder Trish Bink is extending the scheme to benefit other charities.
The products are designed to “save time and save lives in an emergency” by being easy to spot by first responders.
The inspiration for the idea came about in 2010 when Trish Bink’s mother suffered a major stroke at the home they shared. Because Trish was present, she could not only summon the emergency services but also supply them with the relevant information that enabled her mother to receive appropriate treatment within the timescale that prevented irreversible damage.
As her mother recovered in hospital, Trish thought about how different the outcome would have been if her mother had been alone when she suffered the stroke, and what she could do to help others in a similar situation.
“When I started researching, I could see that there were a number of In Case of Emergency (ICE) products on the market, ranging from jewellery to ID cards, but I was surprised to find that none of them were high visibility, and that can prove to be a vital factor in many scenarios.
“For emergency services attending an incident, being able to locate details of a patient’s identity, medical history and special needs quickly could prove to be a matter of life and death.”
She created a prototype after consulting several UK charities, including the Stroke Association, and found a team of UK manufacturers who were not only prepared to deal with a start-up business but also to spend time working with her on improving her initial designs in high visibility material.
“Because of their distinctive colour scheme, blue and yellow on the retro-reflective material, our products are the most visible on the market and can be seen in dim or dismal conditions, on land or at sea”, says Trish.
ICEtell product prices start at £4.75 including P&P.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.