Why we’re helping nurses, doctors and frontline staff to keep their hands clean
Whether you are working from home, working on the frontlines, homeschooling, isolating, or working on one of the key sites to keep the UK going, we are all in this together.
We watch the news like never before, though on some days we don’t watch at all because it can feel overwhelming. We hold our loved ones in our thoughts like never before, we feel our community keenly.
Many of us are tired, many of us are worried, many of us have sore hands and sore fingers from the continuous washing and sanitising.
At 2M, we were running the usual innovation brainstorm a few weeks before this started and someone in the Surfachem labs started looking at hand sanitiser. As we’re in the field of personal care, we looked at a “kind” hand sanitiser that is 60% alcohol but also moisturising. “Good idea” we thought, and filed it away. Until this, until now.
We started witnessing the queues in pharmacies for hand sanitiser and the frantic worry in our communities and we thought – surely…we can help? To be clear, this is not something that we have manufactured before, but our fantastic teams ran towards the challenge and ran at it hard and fast.
We turned around our blending facilities, used to blending very different products. We trained a team, used to working on different products. Our Formulation & Technical Development Manager made 200 mile round trips to Middlesbrough, to watch the huge blending stations be cleaned to personal care grade hygiene standards. We didn’t just do it fast, we did it well. Really well.
I was impressed. But more was to come: As soon as it was done, our UK & Ireland Sales Manager said: “Can we give it away to those who really need it?” Our salespeople are targeted on sales numbers, but this was his first question.
My answer: “Yes. We can and we must.”
So, we are donating 3000 bottles of hand sanitiser from our first production run and the more ethanol we are able to access, the more we will donate.
First, we gave to our staff, because they are our family. Then, we gave to our staff’s communities, because they too need our support and protection. We received a number of requests, requests that stunned me.
- From A&E nurses who are working in Coronavirus wards;
- From pharmacists working alone, all day, to keep their local pharmacy open;
- From the many amazing Childrens’ social workers, working in Manchester, UK, to look after vulnerable children who are no longer being looked after at school every day;
- From 25 teachers who are still working, looking after the children of key workers;
- From a facility which provides end of life care.
The list is endless and we are trying to meet all requests.
I am writing this letter because I hope many more UK businesses will continue to support each other.
To my team: Thank you.
To the NHS workers, working tirelessly across the UK, we salute you. Thank you for all that you do. We will do all that we can do to help you, in this small way.
With deep appreciation,
Mottie Kessler MBE
