COVID Entrepreneur Aims To Raise A Million Pounds For Breast Cancer Now

Ryan Edkins is the Covid Entrepreneur who has made a massive difference throughout the pandemic, through his company, Covex. He is now aiming to raise £1 million – in a new partnership with Breast Cancer Now, with a fabulous new pink hand sanitiser.

Ryan, who was originally a Jeweller by trade, is 36 years old and is from Leigh on Sea in Essex. He started the business in March 2020, from his Dad’s garage, just before the national lockdown. 

In just six months, he has now grown the business into a multi-million-pound company, with turnover in excess of £10 million in their first year of trading. 

Since the business was founded, Ryan and his small team have serviced over 20,000 customers, including: No.10 Downing Street, The Home Office, NHS staff, care homes, and tens of thousands of schools and businesses up and down the country.

Covex Gels is a specialist hand sanitiser manufacturer that makes 100% of their products in the UK. They are committed to producing only the highest quality hand sanitisers.

“In March, I remember seeing a news report about how there was a growing shortage of hand sanitiser products across the UK. I then contracted Coronavirus myself during a skiing trip to Austria, and whilst residing in bed short of breath – I decided that I could help make a difference, and start producing hand sanitiser.

I hired the help of my parents to begin with, and we used a single filling machine to sell over £100,000 worth of sanitiser in just a matter of weeks online. It quickly became apparent that working from home as a family just wasn’t going to cut it.

So I spoke to my friend Rob, who has since become my business partner, and he found us a vacant 10,000 square foot warehouse site in Essex that we immediately took into our possession. From there, we scaled up production capacity, and managed to keep up with the demand as the business grew and grew.

In August, we signed a partnership with Breast Cancer Now to help them raise money during October’s Breast Cancer Awareness month.

To mark our partnership, we have created a pink hand sanitiser, and we will be donating £1 from every litre sold. This money will help Breast Cancer Now continue to make possible life-changing care and world-class research,” said Ryan Edkins, Founder of Covex

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Breast Cancer Now funds around a third of all breast cancer research in the UK. 

By working with almost 340 of the brightest minds in breast cancer research, the charity is helping discover how to prevent more cases, save more lives and is enabling more people to live well with the disease.

Breast cancer is the UK’s most common cancer, with around 55,000 women and 370 men being diagnosed each year. One in seven women will develop the disease in their lifetime. An estimated 600,000 people in the UK are alive after a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Despite decades of progress in research and care, around 11,500 UK women and 80 UK men still die from the disease each year, with hundreds of thousands more living with the devastating, long-term physical and emotional impacts of the disease.

Breast Cancer Now launched in October 2019, created by the merger of specialist support and information charity Breast Cancer Care and leading research charity Breast Cancer Now.

“We are delighted to be working with Covex. Their generous fundraising will help to fund world-class research and life-changing care, creating support for today and hope for the future.

As the UK’s first comprehensive breast cancer charity, we are here to support anyone affected by this devastating disease. Our work is needed now more than ever, so a huge thank you to Ryan and all the staff and customers of Covex – your support will help us to continue to be there for people affected by breast cancer, now and in the future,” said Sarah Canniford, the Head of Corporate Partnerships at Breast Cancer Now.

Spread the word and not germs this October – #SanitisePink

Find out more about Covex, or buy Covex’s Breast Cancer Now 75ml pink hand sanitiser, here. Find out more about the campaign here, and about Breast Cancer Now here.