Through creative awareness campaigns co-developed with Iceland’s charitable arm Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF), the UK Sepsis Trust and Iceland Foods have reached millions of people with potentially life-saving information, working towards our vision of ending preventable deaths from sepsis.
A Partnership Destined for Success
In January 2019 the UK Sepsis Trust announced its partnership with IFCF and began work on an initiative to bring conversations about sepsis into the classroom. ‘Schools against Sepsis’ was successfully trialled with teachers and students across the country and has now developed into a full set of free educational resources for schools, as part of our Sepsis Savvy campaign.
Around the same time, Iceland Foods provided its 28,000 colleagues with pocket-sized symptom cards and ‘Just ask: Could it be sepsis?‘ appeared on 100 million of their milk cartons over an 18 month period.
CFO of Iceland Foods, Richard Ewen said: “I am incredibly proud of the work that IFCF has done in raising awareness of sepsis, particularly through our messaging on milk cartons and support for the ‘Schools against Sepsis’ education campaign. Having experienced the devastating impact of sepsis within my own family, I know just how important this work is, and I am convinced that our support for The UK Sepsis Trust will have a direct impact in saving lives. There can surely be no more humbling yet fulfilling reason for supporting any charity.”
Founding Partner of Sepsis Savvy
Building on the success of the schools and milk carton campaigns, we developed an awareness drive that could utilise the reach and communicating power of organisations across the country. Sepsis Savvy was born in May 2021 with the aim of educating as many people as possible about sepsis and the signs to look for through a short video, online game and a variety of other resources.
CEO of Iceland Foods and Trustee of IFCF, Tarsem Dhaliwal said: “When it comes to saving lives from sepsis we know awareness is key. That’s why we’re delighted to have been involved with Sepsis Savvy from the start and, of course, to be one of the first organisations to sign up. The short film and game make it easy for us to educate our colleagues about sepsis and the signs to look out for and, crucially, it’s free and really easy to implement. We’re encouraging other like-minded companies to get involved too – if we all play our part, we can save even more lives.”
Dr Ron Daniels, Joint CEO and Founder of the UK Sepsis Trust said: “As a relatively small health charity on a huge mission, our partners play a vital role in disseminating our potentially life-saving information on a scale we couldn’t otherwise reach. As our Founding Partner in this campaign, Iceland and IFCF have led the way in collaborating on innovative ways to engage colleagues and customers. They have transformed our ability to raise awareness of sepsis and of our services, ensuring more people know about the condition and that those affected get the support they need”.
Actor and UK Sepsis Trust ambassador Jason Watkins has been involved in the development of the Sepsis Savvy campaign, and as well as appearing in the promotional video, was invited to speak at IFCF’s Charity Golf Day about the tragic loss of his daughter, Maude. Watkins said: “I’d urge, in the strongest terms possible, as many organisations as possible to sign up to Sepsis Savvy. We may well not have lost our darling daughter to sepsis if we’d known more about this condition and what to look out for. But sepsis was not, and still is not, part of our everyday language – and that’s the terrible tragedy and truth. We’re determined to prevent other families going through what we’ve been, and are still, going through. So please, sign up now and protect your colleagues, customers, clients”.
Sign up to Sepsis Savvy here and find more information about sepsis here.