Attleborough demolition firm steps up to help NHS workers

Staff from an Attleborough company have answered the call to help protect NHS front-line workers while they fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Anglia Demolition and Asbestos, in Westcarr Road, furloughed its workforce last month, but four members of the team – David Bickel, Richard Lambert, Sam Horsfall and 18-year-old apprentice Jamie Currie – wanted to help others.

Mr Bickel, who is the company’s health and safety director, said: “Our managing director, Lee Storer, saw a message on social media from the Suffolk Health Authority asking for people to help face-fit NHS staff with respiratory masks to protect them while they work on the front line.

“He asked the four of us, who are fully trained in face-fit testing, if we wanted to help and all of us just couldn’t say no to helping those that are helping so many.”

Face-fitting masks involves training on how to wear the mask and tips on applying a bitter and sour solution to ensure the mask is sealed around the person’s face.

Mr Bickel said: “If the mask is fitted properly, this can give 50 times more protection to the wearer and, in this current situation, that can help these workers so much.”

The group, along with other businesses from around the area, has been covering Ipswich, Colchester, James Paget and Norfolk and Norwich University hospitals, with Mr Bickel estimating that they have helped to fit around 2,500 masks so far.

He said: “I know quite a few people in our town who work in the medical profession; my eldest daughter is a police officer and my youngest is a care worker, so this is a very emotive subject for me.

“All the people who are working in whatever way on the front line deserve so much praise and recognition for what they are doing.

“They are giving their all with the little they have and are doing a huge amount of hours along the way.

“If we can be a small part in the bigger jigsaw, we are more than are happy to help.”