Chief Executive Officer, Fearless Founder, Vital Health Change Maker, Health Advocate for All Mankind and Mom
My husband and I have both experienced the challenges to make personal protective equipment an essential tool in our health journey. Mark and I married in 1998 and worked together building our home from the ground up. Occasionally we utilized half-face respirators but only when we felt it was extremely toxic or could hardly breathe without the use of our PPE, such as when we sprayed paint in the interior of our home or applied toxic varnishes or urethane’s to our flooring. However, when it came to toxic exposures outside we never used protection due to the discomfort. We both realized the exposure to toxins and particulates outside was harmful but just hoped for the best by choosing the wind as our only protection. The thought of using PPE was so overwhelmingly uncomfortable we chose to harm ourselves and deal with our future disease as a consolation prize for working hard without protection.
When it came to COVID-19 I could tolerate the discomfort while wearing a disposable respirator or mask. With the realization that in life we all have challenges that impact us more than others I witnessed firsthand that like so many, my husband struggled more than I did to wear a mask. A preferred choice for him would be to stay home or skip going to see his doctor than to wear a mask. The day he handed me his invented solution to make his standard half-face respirator comfortable and allowed him to be able to wear his protection no matter the length of time needed, I knew this adaption to standard masks and respirators had to reach the world.
I have a spirit to be bold and fearless striving to never give up and pursue business structures with not just profit as the goal, but also social entrepreneurship. I work every day to become a change maker and want to impact the global community by providing all laborers working in unhealthy or highly particulate environments without an adequate level of respiratory protection a better way to breathe. My goal is to provide comfortable safety products, and find ways to ensure all people exposed to avoidable respiratory disease, especially those working for the benefit of another man have a method to breathe easier. My life pursuit is to ensure all people have access to comfortable respiratory equipment through either a nonprofit or government public health measure.
All people should have the human right to comfort in respirators for protection from avoidable respiratory disease.