Bob's idea has global impact

Bob's idea has global impact

PARAMEDIC Bob Brotchie will keep the champagne on ice after his emergency contact system narrowly missed out on a global award.

ICE, which stands for In Case of Emergency, was beaten to the Word of the Year 2005 title by podcast, a downloadable audio file.

Editors, readers and word enthusiasts the world over voted for the word that had made the biggest impact during the year.

ICE was a runner-up, along with bird flu and sudoku, in the competition run by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

East Anglian Ambulance paramedic Bob, who lives in Mildenhall and is stationed in Cambridge, said: "In just six months ICE has become a standard phrase used by safety advice agencies and emergency services all over the English-speaking world.

"Even the United Nations issued a guidance note to its entire staff making them aware of the programme."

He added: "To be mentioned alongside words like podcast and sudoku shows how ICE has caught the Zeitgeist."

The 41-year-old, whose third child is due on New Year's Eve, came up with the idea for storing emergency contact details under ICE in a mobile phone's address book.

The idea has evolved into a secure emergency contact service helping to fund charities, including the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

More information is available from www.icecontact.com