It started with my grandmother
I called her Majoon when I was small, and I still do. MediWear exists because of a question she asked me.
The question
A friend from Majoon’s knitting group told her that her husband had gone missing for 36 hours. He’d been taken to hospital by ambulance, unconscious, and listed as an unknown patient because he had nothing on him to say who he was. His family were beside themselves until he woke up.
Majoon turned to me and said:
What if that’s me one day?
A few weeks later, standing up to get off the bus after her weekly shop, she fainted. She was bruised and shaken but otherwise all right. At the GP we found her blood pressure was low: a change to her tablets had overcorrected it.
If the paramedics who helped her had been able to see her record, they would have known about that change straight away. And if it happened again, and it was something more serious?
Nothing she’d wear
I looked at the medical IDs that already existed. Most were built around a big red symbol that, to Majoon, said “I’m ill”. She’s not, and she didn’t want to look it. Others were poorly made, or charged a yearly subscription to keep her details on file.
So we designed our own. On the front, a medical symbol a paramedic will recognise, in gold-tone on white enamel, with our MediWear mark above it. It says “I have information” rather than “I’m unwell”. On the back, whatever the person wearing it wants a paramedic to know.
We also recommend adding an NHS number. In England it opens the Summary Care Record that a GP already keeps, and a record like that would have shown the change to Majoon’s tablets.
It’s for people who are well and want to stay that way, and for people living with a condition who’d rather not be defined by it.
Designed and engraved in London
We design and assemble every pendant in London. Each one has a white enamel front and a silver-tone or gold-tone finish, made to be worn every day rather than kept for best.
We engrave every pendant ourselves, here in London. We’re a family business looking after other families, so we read every line before we engrave it. If something doesn’t look right, we pick up the phone.
What we promise
- You pay once. No subscription, no yearly fee, no account.
- We don’t keep your medical records. Your GP does. We only engrave what you ask us to.
- You can always reach a person, by phone or email.
- It should look like jewellery, because that’s the only way people keep wearing it.
Kya Mobasheri, founder