Lions Message in a Bottle: The Small Green Bottle That Speaks for You

Lions Message in a Bottle is a small green and white bottle that lives in your fridge. Inside it is a form with your name, your medical details, your medication, your allergies and who to call. If the ambulance service comes and you cannot tell them any of that yourself, the bottle tells them for you.

It is free, it takes ten minutes to fill in, and it is run by the Lions Clubs. We think more people in Hertfordshire should know about it.

We are helping to raise awareness of it across Hertfordshire. Our carers will be mentioning it to the people we support, and to people we meet out in the community.

We have set out how it works, and where to collect one in each part of the county, in our guide to Message in a Bottle in Hertfordshire.

Why a fridge, of all places

It is the one cupboard every home has, and it never moves.

That is the whole trick. A crew arriving at a house they have never been to does not have to search anywhere. They see the sticker, they open the fridge, and the information is in their hands within a minute.

It sounds too simple to matter. But in an emergency, simple is exactly the point.

The detail almost nobody knows about Lions Message in a Bottle

The form has a space for your pets.

In fact, the policeman who started the whole thing added it. John Hughes was the local bobby in Crossgates in Fife in 1995, and he brought the idea over after hearing about a similar scheme in Australia. He decided any pets in the home should be on the form, in case someone living alone was taken to hospital.

Three decades on, it is still there.

Kendal Lions Club became the first Lions club in England to run the scheme in 1999. By 2004 it was an official Lions project nationally. Since 2014 the bottles have been made, printed and packed at HM Prison Garth near Preston. Lions Clubs International says more than six million kits have gone out across the British Isles.

So, from one police officer in a Fife village to six million homes. It is a good story.

Where we are talking about Lions Message in a Bottle

We will be raising Lions Message in a Bottle with the people we support, and with people we meet as we go about our work.

Because our carers see the same people several times a week, often standing in their kitchens, it is a natural thing to raise. It is also a natural thing to point someone towards.

We are also out at community events across Hertfordshire through the year, and it is the sort of thing that is easier to explain face to face than on paper.

We cover St Albans, Harpenden, Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring, Hitchin, Hertford, and Radlett and Shenley, along with the villages around them.

Village households in particular tend to be further from a neighbour who would notice something amiss, so anything that shortens the time between an ambulance arriving and the crew knowing what they are dealing with is worth ten minutes of anyone's afternoon.

If you are arranging care for someone and want to talk through the practical side, our guide to asking for a care needs assessment in Hertfordshire is a sensible next read.

Why we are raising Lions Message in a Bottle

Supporting someone to live safely and confidently at home goes further than the care we provide each day.

Lions Message in a Bottle costs nothing, asks very little, and on the day it matters it does something no care plan can do from a distance. That seems to us worth talking about.

If you would like to talk through care at home in Hertfordshire, our St Albans office is on 01727 324 127 or [email protected].