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Anchor Magnets provide an innovation solution for Mercy Ships Africa Mercy Print E-mail
Monday, 29 October 2007
The Africa Mercy is the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship, which has recently set sail on its inaugural voyage to Liberia in Africa. Owned and operated by the charity Mercy Ships, more than 400 volunteers will crew the ships first mission, providing free healthcare and community development services to the poorest people of war-torn Liberia

Following eight years of conversion work, the former Danish rail ferry, has been converted into a state-of-the-art hospital ship at a cost of over £30million funded by donations and global fundraising. As the conversion neared its completion one issue came to light as the transforming vessel changed from an empty shell into a state-of-the-art hospital ship. Soon it was set to be occupied by over 400 volunteers and vast amounts of equipment which would turn this vessel into a small community and Mercy Ships approached Anchor Magnets to provide an innovative solution. The situation was very simple.  How do you hang things up when you can’t put a nail or screw in a wall! The last thing the charity needed after £30 million of refurbishment was for people to start drilling into the ships structure to hang up everything from clothes to notice boards. 

Mike Burton, Anchor Magnets Business Development Director, was more than pleased to help, “We were very pleased that Mercy Ships presented us with this challenge. They wanted to enable all the staff working on board to be able to mount letters, postcards, mirrors, pictures, & clothing in the cabins & also communal areas. We proposed 12 different types of magnets to deal with these varied needs, all of which we produce in-house. Our “Neo-Pad” range was perfect as they combine the immense forces of rare earth magnets & high friction. All we had to do was to adapt their design to suit all the applications on the Ship. Since doing so, we have produced over 3,000 items & the crew love them”.     

Judy Polkinhorn, Executive Director, Mercy Ships UK, said: “A huge thank you goes out to everyone who has been involved in the whole project from start to finish. It is a great pleasure to know that the ship will be sailing to Africa shortly to carry out life saving treatments and giving hope back to thousands of families in the poorest communities of the world. We have all been working so hard over the last eight years to get to this stage and to finally see the ship in its completed state is marvelous. “

The projected surgical capacity onboard the Africa Mercy is approximately 7,000 operations per year including, cataract removal/lens implant, tumour removal, cleft lip and palate reconstruction, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair.
The Africa Mercy is the fourth ship to be operated by the international charity, Mercy Ships, which has provided more than £350million worth of needed care and development services since its inception in 1978.

Over the years Mercy Ships has treated more than 200,000 people in village medical clinics; performing more than 32,000 surgeries and 180,000 dental treatments; and completing more than 800 construction, agriculture and water development projects.

Anchor Magnets Ltd is the only UK manufacturer of flexible magnetic extrusion and supplier of sheet materials as well as offering a comprehensive range of complimentary products including Ferro Sheet; Steel Paper & Tape; Printable Ferrous substrates; Neo & Ferrite Magnets; POS Solutions & Assemblies.

For more information on Anchor Magnets or Mercy Ships log on to
www.anchormagnets.com or www.mercyships.org

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