We were burning the midnight oil to finish one of our first really big orders – laptop carriers as it happened – when the husband of one of our seamstresses turned up to collect her. He was a firefighter. He took one look at the laptop bag I was in the middle of making and said, “that would make a superb kit bag for paramedics.

Surprised, I asked him what he meant – didn’t paramedics have professional bags already?

I was astonished. It was a real Eureka! moment. The very next day I had him take me over to meet his mates at the local ambulance station where I spoke to the crews about their kit and quickly learnt how difficult it could be to keep track of it all, not to mention getting hold of exactly what they needed in an emergency situation. I went straight home and started sketching ideas.

Two days later I took my prototype back into the ambulance station to get their feedback and was bowled over by it – the rest, as they say, is history!”