Testimonials

Caudwell Xtreme Everest 

The relationship between Tina Fotherby and Caudwell Xtreme Everest, a unique medicine-based expedition with a mission to conduct vital life-saving research on the roof of the world, is one of the most ambitious and successful projects conducted to date.

The Caudwell Xtreme Everest research programme is breathtaking in its scope.  Conceived by the doctors of the Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE), the plan is to study the effects of high-altitude oxygen deprivation on no fewer than 200 volunteers who, in the spring of 2007 trekked to Everest Base Camp in twice-weekly groups of 16, stopping en route from Kathmandu at a series of specially established temporary laboratories.

In a unique tie-in with mountain expedition specialists Jagged Globe, volunteers each paid £2,395 to take part, with £500 of the cost going directly to support the scientific research.  Not that the science stopped at base camp. More detailed research was carried out on a small group of scientists up to the very summit of the mountain.

Everest is the perfect lab for the researchers, many of whom work as intensive-care doctors or nurses, as the high altitude replicates in the normal, healthy human body the oxygen-related problems that beset many patients in intensive care units.  One study examined how efficiently oxygen is delivered to the body’s tissues and how well that oxygen is then used by the cells.  Blood-flow to the brain was also under the microscope in an attempt to discover how variations affect its ability to function, while the high altitude allowed the team to learn more about the processes that lead to illnesses in lungs deprived of oxygen.  Another strand of research tested the effectiveness of a new portable breathing system for climbers.

One of the men behind Caudwell Xtreme Everest is Dr Mike Grocott, co-director of CASE Medicine and senior lecturer in intensive care medicine at UCL Hospitals, London.  An enthusiastic climber, he has been visiting either the Himalayas or the Andes “almost every year since 1993”.   Climbing Everest had always been a personal goal, and it was out of that ambition that the project slowly evolved.

“CASE is the administrative entity which we set up with the concept that you can do research in extreme environments which will bring back useful information for use in clinical practice, and particularly in critical care, because a lot of what critical care is about is physiological systems stretched to their limit and sometimes beyond,” says Mike.

“The Everest idea has been on the table since about 1998, but as nothing concrete until 2003. Then we had a press launch in 2005 and since this March 2006 we have had six people employed at expedition HQ.  The Everest expedition is now the flagship of a large programme of hypoxia research.”

In the beginning the team left the project’s PR to a series of volunteers, but it soon became apparent that such part-time efforts would not be enough.  “There comes a point when you need people in the office every day answering phone calls and chasing and I don’t think it would be practical to run this sort of project with people working in their free time,” says Mike.

Then Mac MacKenney, operations manager for Caudwell Xtreme Everest, suggested the team spoke to Tina Fotherby.

“She came up to see us and presented two huge files from projects she’d done previously with extensive media coverage,” says Mike. “We’d had one splash previously that had been engineered by the UCL press people, but this was at a new level from our perspective and she was very enthused by our project. We agreed to run a three-month trial in the summer, because we’re not loaded, to say the least!”

In August, the third month, Tina secured an opening for the project at the Science Museum and, with the attendant coverage, the recruitment of volunteers went from a steady trickle to a torrent. “Suddenly,” says Mike, “we had a waiting list of 400 people.”

Despite the glut of volunteers, the project was still in need of major funding. In August the team flew out for a scheduled but expensive rehearsal to test all the medical equipment on Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world.

“I was completely up-front with Tina,” says Mike. “After the three-month trial we agreed to carry on paying the same rate, potentially having to pay more while we were on Everest because there was likely to be a higher density of coverage then. I then had to say to her, ‘This is very difficult, we really think you’ve done a fantastic job that has really helped us, but right now we just can’t afford to pay you, at least for the next couple of months. Perhaps we can work together again in the future’.”

The reply took the entire team by surprise. “Tina said that she believed in what we were doing and they were prepared to take the gamble to work for nothing on the basis that if we got funds we would pay them back.  So they carried on working in the same way. I don’t know the PR world that well but I do know that is extremely kind and unusual.  I think Tina is a very special person and I value her advice enormously.”

In the event, the deal paid off for both parties. Tina’s enthusiasm for the project proved infectious – and priceless. She managed to persuade a major sponsor to come on board and in December presented the team with an early Christmas present: backing of half a million pounds from the entrepreneur John Caudwell.

“It was just wonderful,” says Mike. “Our books now balance. At the moment it’s about as good as it’s ever been, in that I have a spreadsheet in front of me that has a nought at the bottom!”

www.caudwell-xtreme-everest.com

Pink Lady Atlantic First 

The story of Pink Lady Atlantic First, the 2004 attempt by a crew of four Britons to break the record for rowing across the Atlantic, was a classic example of matchmaking, bringing together four ocean rowers in need of sponsorship and a commercial client in search of publicity for a rising brand of apple.

Tina Fotherby and her team developed intense TV, radio and print media interest in the build-up to the crossing and this only escalated once the team set off from St John’s, Newfoundland, bound for Falmouth in the UK.  The crew frequently conducted media interviews from the boat via satellite phone to a schedule carefully controlled by the agency, careful to balance the needs of publicity with the crew’s need for rest and routine.

One of the crew, Jonathan Gornall, even filed a weekly column about the row to The Times, while skipper Mark Stubbs transmitted back to Tina almost daily a regular stream of photographs and footage that found their way into various media.

Within a few days of beating the record for the 2,100-mile crossing, disaster overtook the Pink Lady in the form of violent storms thrown up by the tail end of the unseasonably early Hurricane Alex.  In the small hours of August 8 the boat was smashed into two pieces by one of the gigantic waves that had been battering her for days.  Good training meant that the crew were able to escape into their liferaft, from which they contacted Falmouth Coastguard – and Tina.

As media interest built into something approximating a frenzy, Tina worked to control the story to make sure the coverage would be favourable to both rowers and sponsor.  In the event, because the professionalism of the crew and their preparations had been the media message from day one, the dramatic end of the record was presented universally as an heroic failure.  The result was acres of positive publicity for the sponsor and the rowers alike.

“Throughout their involvement in the Pink Lady Atlantic First project, Tina Fotherby and her team acted in a thoroughly professional and objective manner,” says John Wills, digital mapping consultant and one of the crew.

“They managed to achieve the difficult balance of satisfying the client, the media and the rowing team at all times.  Throughout the build-up to departure and during the journey across the Atlantic, they ensured that the media were kept fully informed of progress, whilst limiting the pressure of interviews and media contact for the crew.

“In what turned out to be a very eventful ending to the project, they protected the client's image and the privacy of the crew whilst also providing the media with the necessary information on what had happened in a clear and concise manner.”

Pete Bray, former SAS diver and another of the crew of four, says: “Having endured negative experiences with PR companies in the past, I became sceptical and disillusioned, so Tina and her team had an immense job to convince me.

“They certainly proved their abilities, maintaining considerable media interest which exceeded our expectations. They were highly professional, competent and enthusiastic throughout the expedition.”

Skipper Mark Stubbs, a former Royal Marine, was also impressed: “Through their imagination and skill, the team shared with the world’s media the Pink Lady Atlantic First story, using every opportunity to make the sport of ocean rowing news-worthy.

“Tina’s professionalism and attention to detail generated a worldwide media profile for the Pink Lady Atlantic First.  The PR team rose to the challenge to work alongside the rowing team and Pink Lady sponsor, building team spirit. Their hard work created the link into the media ‘machine’.  The story was brought to life from one of the most remote places in the world.

“For 39 days, the action, the team’s emotions, the ocean’s dangers and beauty and the sponsors' messages were shared with a staggering number of people.

“I would recommend Tina Fotherby for her integrity, passion and sheer hard work that really makes her outstanding.”