THE WYKEHAM JOURNAL 2020
‘ We were trying to get hold of anyone to listen , and we got absolutely nowhere .’
The new PeRSO respirator
The team went shopping for off-theshelf parts — a fan , a filter and a battery — and within a week the prototype was built . Made with a fabric hood , and clear face visor , it had a High Efficiency Particulate Air ( HEPA ) filter linked to a battery-powered fan attached round the waist . With the entire face visible it made it easier to speak to patients and gave staff better protection than surgical and other masks .
Paul Elkington ’ s links to Winchester start with his grandfather Monty Wright , who was Second Master , at that time not only the Headmaster ’ s deputy , but also in charge of College , from 1925 to 1952 . His mother was born in Chamber Court and his son is currently a student in Beloe ’ s . He himself went on to study Medicine at Oxford and spent five years as a Junior Hospital Doctor during the days of the 72-hour week in London . On a year out in Zambia he discovered that while most of his patients had been diagnosed with HIV , it was TB that often killed them . From then on , studying TB became his life ’ s passion . He returned to Imperial College , London , to do a PhD , investigating how TB affects the lungs , eventually moving to Southampton University to set up the TB research group there .
His pedigree as a trusted academic clinician meant that when he and the team presented the newly named ‘ PeRSo ’ Respirator to hospital officials just ten days after they started the project , the hospital responded by asking them if they could manufacture it on a mass scale .
It was a huge challenge . Requests for government help fell on deaf ears , according to Professor Elkington : ‘ We were trying to get hold of anyone to listen , and we got absolutely nowhere .’ Once again the team went local , drawing in INDO , a lighting company with contacts in China , and Kemp Sails , to invest in production . Within the first six weeks they produced 1,000 respirators . While they sought approval from NHS
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