Frustrated Exeter businessman calls on charities to adopt his life-saving idea

An Exeter businessman who has developed a system which can deploy tens of thousands of personal emergency First Aid pods by parachute to victims of natural disasters like those being experienced in the Philippines, has spoken of his frustration that no major charity or organisation has adopted the idea.

Nick Sprague launched his charity Parabottle after the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and has so far raised £30,000 to develop the cost-effective airborne system for distributing food and water.

Each Parabottle will contain a bottle of water, a foil blanket, and matches. The contents of each pod can also be adapted to the climate and apparent risks of individual disaster areas.

Conventional aid distribution often takes time to implement leaving many people without safe drinking water and essential medical supplies, sometimes for days at a time.

In a crisis, Parabottles will be safely air-dropped across disaster zones where transport infrastructures such as roads and airstrips have been damaged.

Its parachute mechanism will be designed by Airbourne Systems who specialise in the development and manufacture of rescue and survival equipment for the military, coast guard and rescue organisations.

The contents are designed support life for a minimum of twenty-four hours or before the arrival of conventional aid.

Nick said: “It’s very frustrating that the Disaster Emergency Committee, made up of the top 14 aid charities, have not grasped the nettle and put their considerable resources to making Parabotlle a reality.

“I despair of the arrogance and apathy that these charities adopt. Where's the fighting spirit? Action this day needs to be their new motto. We have a golden opportunity to take a British invention and progress through the stages of development and approval to offer a low cost life saving device."

Nick, who is the founder of Cobell juices, the UK's leading supplier of processed fruit, based on Marsh Barton, addded: “The affected Countries can also benefit in times of non disaster by taking the components and packing each Parabotlle.

This brings much needed employment to these areas and helps them to help themselves.”

See a short video here http://www.parabottle.org.uk