Nick Bewlay Appeal

For regular updates please check the liftingsafety blog

One of our long-standing customers, Nick Bewlay has been paralysed from the neck down following a serious car accident on the 30th January 2009, he was in an induced coma for 7 days. When he regained conciousness Nick could not breath unaided, and was not expected to live. He fought through this and has literally had to learn how to breath unaided breath by breath; he can now breath independently and speak, but cannot move at all.

Nick was an independent and proud man; and has thus far refused to consider financial help. Having paid tax and national insurance throughout his working life to date Nick fully expected state support for his long term care provision, only to find that no assistance is available, not even such an essential item as the specialist wheelchair he cannot be moved without. After the massive effort that Nick and all those around him have expended just to get this far it seems that every time a door opens there is a brick wall behind it.  This has put his family under immense strain at a time when they are all trying to come to terms with, and  live day to day with Nick's injuries. Nick's wife is literally on the brink of a nervous break-down and so Nick has no alternative but to ask for help, as he can see how much his family are suffering but cannot change things for himself and his family.

Over the years Nick has developed a working relationship with Gerry McKenna at Ardagh Glass - one of his customers, and it is Gerry who is spear-heading a campaign aiming to harness the network of people in our industry to try and raise some funds to adapt his home to meet his needs. At SELS we are also trying to support this. Our Managing Director has already contributed a four figure sum. One of our engineers, Alan Robinson, is cycling from the west coast to the east coast of England over 3 days, on the “coast to coast trail” with Phil Howdell from Drax Power Station, all sponsorships will go to the fund.

We are writing to our customers and suppliers, many of whom Nick has dealt with in the past, to ask them to give generously as individuals and companies so that we can make a terrible situation slightly easier for Nick, his wife and their young children.

We will provide a receipt for all contributions, all contributors will be thanked on our web page for the campaign: http://www.liftingsafety.co.uk/site/nick-bewlay-appeal.html and we will regularly update the page with information on the progress of the campaign. We guarantee 100% of any donations will go to the fund.

This unexpected tragedy has highlighted how lucky many of us are. Please give as much as you can as an individual and as a company.

We hope you feel as moved as we do by what is happening to Nick, please pass this on to your network of suppliers and customers, if everyone plays a small part we can make a big difference together.

Thank you for your support

Thank you to those who have contributed:

Thank you for the generous support given by the teams at: Harris Walton, Donati, Trans-Web, T Allen Engineering Services, Simbal and Yale. We really appreciate the support given, and all cheques have been sent to Gerry McKenna at Ardagh Glass, who is the Principal of the Fund. They will be paid into the fund bank account and used to help with the changes needed so that Nick can live at home.

We at SELS are in regular contact with Gerry, and he is keeping Nick up to date with the efforts and support of all involved, and he has asked me to pass on sincere thanks from Nick to all those who have helped. Nick has been really touched by the support that he is recieving.

A list of contributors to the Nick Bewlay Fund to date:

• Harris Walton
• Donati
• Trans-web
• T Allen Engineering Services
• Simbal
• Yale