Everyone has either had, or knows someone who has had, a slip on a wet floor. Some result in injury, sometimes fatally, sometimes a broken bone or two, sometimes a little bruising to the skin, and some are just "near misses" where no injury is sustained (other than bruised pride). With that in mind I'd like to tell you a story. It's a true story. I know because it happened to me.

Back in 1986 I was working as a Breakfast Chef in the staff restaurant in a busy airport in the UK. It was a typical kitchen with all the usual equipment, stoves, ranges, griddles, microwaves, steamers etc. The floor surface was covered with quarry tiles.

On one particular morning we were busier than normal. I had started work at 6am as usual and set up the servery with all the usual cooked breakfast menu items: scrambled eggs; tomatoes; mushrooms; bacon; baked beans and sausages. Being busy meant that we would start to run out of food and on this particular day the baked beans were in high demand.

I went to the dry store and took out a couple of catering sized tins of baked beans, took them over to the bench and opened them with the Bonza tin opener (a large tin opener fastened to a bench to get good leverage on the tin and make opening easier). I then pored the contents of the two tins into a glass bowl. Because we needed to get the beans up to temperature quickly we would normally reheat them in the microwave oven.

So now I've got my beans in a bowl and I'm heading for the microwave but no-one had told me that someone had spilt something on the floor and that the janitor had cleaned it up. No warning, no signs, it was an accident waiting to happen. And happen it did!

One moment is was walking briskly towards the microwave, and I can still picture it in my mind's eye, and the next I'm on the floor.

One second I'm looking at the microwave and the next, the ceiling.

And all that I could think of? The beans, of course. Never mind that the fall could have killed me, or disfigured me, or left me disabled for the rest of my life (and I thank God that none of these occured), all I could say as I got up was "I saved the beans". It's amazing what goes through your mind when accidents like that happen. Who would have cared about the stupid beans if I had been concussed and taken to hospital? Who would have wanted to serve breakfast if I had been killed? Who would have cooked the beans if I was off work for 6 weeks with a broken arm? I didn't get off scot free though. I did bruise my hip, and it hurt. It did not put me off baked beans though.

This type of accident is happening every day. Somewhere. To someone. Everyone thinks that it won't happen to them. But if it happened to me it could happen to you! You may not work in a busy kitchen but accidents like these happen in all walks of life. At work, at home, in our leisure time. They happen to children, the elderly and everyone in between.

That's where Grip Wise Anti-Slip come in. We want to prevent these accidents.

85% OF ALL ACCIDENTS ARE PREVENTABLE!

How can they be prevented? By using the right treatment for your situation. There are lots of benefits to our cost-effective treatments:

• increased safety for employees, customers and the general public
• safer homes for elderly or frail relatives or for young children (or, indeed, pets!) and for you
• peace of mind
• reduced injuries
• reduced hospital bills
• employers can now comply with OH&S legislation
• provide a safe work environment
• reduced medical, insurance and WorkCover claims
• meet your duty of care to staff and visitors
• protection from lawsuits
• some treatments do not change the appearance of the floor
• floors can usually be treated without interrupting business - at times to suit you
• floors treated with Wonder Step can be walked on immediately after treatment
• the treatment is not expensive compared to the potential savings
• floors can usually be cleaned as per normal after treatment
• every floor comes with a warranty of up to 5 years