The Story Behind Action Plaster

If you are involved in contact sports or extreme sports where you are likely to get cuts and skin abrasions close to other people or in open water, then the use of Action Plaster has never been more important than now.

 

The need for infection control since the emergence of COVID 19, coupled with the alarming yet mainly unreported death rate from Sepsis in the UK has brought the benefits of using Action Plaster into focus.

 

Many advances in technology and medicine have come from lessons learnt on the battlefield. It has always been common knowledge and a statistical fact that infection and disease is the most dangerous enemy to the soldier on the ground. From Florence Nightingale and the first overhaul of infection control in the Crimean Wars to modern-day Afghanistan, infection control needs to be taken seriously.

 

Interestingly, Action Plaster has its beginnings with UK Special Forces where a patrol medic, namely Hadrian Garner (owner of Action Plaster) realised infection was an issue for his unit. Cuts and skin abrasions become easily infected in the dirty environment when on operations. Operating in the Special Forces means long periods unsupported behind enemy lines. This involved being held up in (Ops) observation posts for days or even weeks at a time, so any cut or abrasion risked becoming infected.

 

Necessity is often the mother of invention. Having a nurse for a mother Hadrian became aware of a medical barrier product used in the NHS on bedsores. This he found was much more effective and also acted as an antiseptic while covering the cut or abrasion and helping to stop the ingress of foreign bodies causing infection. However, this product had many failings especially with its application onto the skin.

 

Having left the military, working as a police officer in Birmingham and also heavily involved in extreme sports, Hadrian realised that first aid kits were lacking a barrier product to protect open cuts and abrasions. Moreover, a conventional plaster just came off when you perspired or entered into the water. 

 

Hadrian states “There were several catalysts where I decided to pursue developing my own barrier product. For example, while working as a police officer a prisoner who had hepatitis B, purposely spat at a cut on my face procured in the struggle to arrest him. Secondly, a friend had contracted Weil's disease via an open blister on this foot while rowing and had been extremely ill. These two incidents coupled with the death of Andy Holmes, the Olympic gold medal-winning rower and partner of Steven Redgrave, from Weil's disease encouraged Hadrian to pursue a commercial barrier product.

 

Within six months Hadrian had found a leading UK manufacturer of cosmetic and medical products to work with him to produce a water-resistant barrier product that could be delivered from an aerosol. From this Action Plaster was born.

 

Once launched it soon became the firm favourite in the niche extreme sports world and is being used by triathlon competitors, UK special forces medics and professional sportspeople. It’s now stocked in Go Outdoors, Millets, Black and Ultimate Outdoors and had recently been taken on by Sports Direct.

 

The rest is history.