Festool, the leading supplier of high-end power tools and accessories, is on its way to raising more than £25,000 for the British Lung Foundation (BLF) and to promote lung health to UK tradespeople.
The company launched a Cycle Challenge last month as part of its “Breathe Easy with Festool Dust Extraction” campaign, featuring Wattbikes on its impressive UK roadshow as part of the European tour. Three lucky participants won £500 of Festool prizes for biking the fastest mile, three miles and five miles.
Phil Elson, managing director of Healy’s Tools in St Albans, Hertfordshire, very generously trebled the money collected throughout the 15 stops across the UK and Ireland.
He said: “We love hosting the Festool Tour as it’s a chance for us to offer our customers the opportunity to demo tools and receive professional advice. With the giveaways and prize draws customers can get a lot more for their money.
“The roadshow gives us a chance to say thank you to our customers by being able to give them that extra bit more through giveaways, low prices and food and drink. For new customers it was a great chance to find out what both Healy’s Tools and Festool have to offer.
“We were really impressed with the hard work of the team to raise money for the BLF and it was our pleasure to donate a sizeable cheque matching their efforts.”
Jonathon Burcham, Marketing Manager at Festool, said: “We were blown away with Phil’s generous offer to match the money raised. We had a very successful roadshow and would like to also thank all our trade partners up and down the county, and across the Irish Sea, for being such great hosts.”
Featuring Festool’s premium range of tools, the fully equipped truck provided trade visitors with the opportunity to use the tools and talk to a team of experts. Visitors got a sneak peak of upcoming products, as well as Festool’s complete range of dust extractors that help safeguard a dust-free work environment.
As part of its fundraising initiatives, Festool has sold more than 100 top quality cycling tops through its eBay page here: https://bit.ly/Festooltop. The money made from the limited edition cycle shirts and the roadshow will go towards research into life threatening lung diseases, as well as help provided by the BLF for those living with conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), mesothelioma, asthma and lung cancer.
The truck tour began in Portsmouth and called at Twickenham, Newmarket, Leyton, St Albans, High Wycombe, Mansfield, Derby, Rotherham, Glasgow, Dunfermline, Blackburn, Belfast and Dublin. See photos from the event here: https://www.festool.co.uk/campaigns/roadshow.
Jonathon Burcham added: “The sad truth in our industry is that tradespeople are four times more likely to contract asthma compared to other workers. The HSE says tradespeople must always use dust extraction but we know that’s sadly not always adhered to.
“We’ve been promoting the importance of safer, dust-free working conditions with the help of the BLF for the past couple of years and our latest campaign highlights the importance of lung health amongst tradespeople who are most at risk.”
Ideal for mobile use and assembly, the Festool range of safe and robust dust extractors are lightweight and compact, ideal to transport from job to job, again saving time for the tradesperson. Festool offers a range of dust extractors which are suitable for any job from low to high class dust, including general work to anything that is a known carcinogen including lead, cadmium and asbestos.
To find the right dust extractor for you, visit www.festool.co.uk for more information.
* Reference for research can be fund here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/woodworking/wooddust.htm
* More information can be found here: www.blf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/the-battle-for-breath-2016