Left For Good

How to ensure your Nomad Core Kit is #LeftForGood

We believe travel is a privilege and not a right. Part of that privilege is ensuring that we travel ethically and do what we can to avoid using up local resources due to poor medical preparation. Our specialised and unique Core medical kit has been curated over the years with not only the traveller in mind, but also the potential limited resources that may be available in the destination country.

Why the Core Kit?

Nomad’s Core medical kit is compact and affordable, containing all your first aid essentials from Burns Gel dressings & bandages to water purification tablets and rehydration sachets. Whether it be a resort holiday, backpacking excursion or a hardcore expedition, it is always beneficial and recommended to carry your own personal medical kit.

This kit is great for personal use, but also contains non-prescription items, which means you can safely share these resources with anyone in your family or group if needed. Even with a first aider on site, you might get separated from the group, not be able to trust hostel tap water or even bottled water in some countries where tests have been done. Most people have required blister plasters, sunburn remedies, suture equipment etc. on holiday, and no one enjoys the inevitable trip to an international Pharmacy, where language barriers leave you with doubts & the prices with a lighter pocket!

It is also key to note that with international first aid items and medications, you can never be 100% certain with what you are getting. A few years ago, our Head of Medical and Lead Pharmacist, Jason Gibbs carried out a research project in India. He collected several samples of Paracetamol from Pharmacies across India on his travels. Upon his return to the UK, Jason sent the ‘Paracetamol’ tablets off for testing. He discovered that over 50% of his samples were not Paracetamol at all, and that one of the tablets contained a substance that could be potentially lethal to humans, even in small doses. This study reinforces the importance of preparation when it comes to first aid items & medication.

What is #LeftForGood campaign?

As well as the health and safety of a traveller, Nomad are passionate about educating our customers to travel ethically & take responsibility for not just their own wellbeing, but that of the country they are visiting. Many countries around the world do not have easy access to vital medical essentials such as, first aid equipment, sterile needles, or suture kits. Unsterile medical equipment is often fatal and something that we can take for granted in the UK. We promote our full Sterile Medical kits & Core First aid to all travellers we meet. This not only means that if personal medical attention is needed, you can hand the practitioner your own reliable sterile equipment, but also that you are ethically not taking away potentially valuable resources from the country you are in.

This is why we are launching our #LeftForGood campaign. Nomad is encouraging our customers/travellers to leave behind any unused and safe medical equipment from the Core and Sterile medical kits before heading home to the UK. A small donation of a sterile kit, bandages, blister plasters or water purification tablets is a precious asset to places with sparse supplies.

How to select a place

If you are travelling to a remote destination, do your research beforehand to see if there are any local clinics or charities you could donate them to. Make sure you only donate the kit or elements at the end of your trip. If you are in a remote location and there is more than one of you with Core kits and coming to the end of your trip, it is recommended to just leave one kit in that place making sure you are still supplied with a medical kit for the rest of your journey.

If you are doing more leisurely travel, these kits can also be left behind at hotel complexes or on excursions to help bolster their first supply. If you can spare the kit so the contents do not get wasted or go out of date, you may be helping someone else keep safe and well in the future if you make sure your kit is #LeftForGood.

What to do to get involved

• • Order a medical kit here https://www.nomadtravel.co.uk/travel-store/medical-first-aid/first-aid/core-medical-kit or come and visit us in clinic!

• • Take a picture of where you have left the kit on your travels and upload to Instagram, tagging the place or organisation you have left it at. This will enable us to start building a map of where Core Kits have been left.

• • Tag @nomad_travel with the hashtag #LeftForGood

• • Receive a discount code that you can use on your next visit to Nomad!