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Friends of mine who live in Australia's Blue Mountains recently sent me the following Message from the local Ambulance Service: "We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? "Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign.

The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As mobile phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' (In Case Of Emergency).

"The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that, when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients but he didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognised name for this purpose.
In a dramatic situation, emergency service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE'.

"Please forward this. It won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest. For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc

This seemed such a good idea that I did indeed pass it around. And two friends in New York promptly came back with " Merci! Fyi, most cellphones sold here (such as our two LGs, which we got two years ago and are scheduled for replacement later this year) come preloaded with an ICE blank entry.

All one has to do is enter the name and number of the party to be called." OK, OK: what the Aussies do today was being done two years ago by the Yanks. But that doesn't make it a less good idea. The only drawback is: How can we make sure that emergency service personnel and hospital staff, and the police too, are all aware of the ICE initiative? There is clearly need for a major information campaign to reach as many people as possible. And will it work in the Lake Geneva Region, where "in case of emergency" may not be meaningful?

ICE might work in the Tessin: in caso d'emergenza. But is there a comparable "en cas d'urgence" or "en cas où" initiative hereabouts? Or "im Notfall" in German-speaking Switzerland? There is a lot to be said for adopting ICE as the all-cultures acronym – again, providing the message reaches all those who might be involved in reaching "our loved ones"!

John Bland is a former Reuter correspondent living in the Pays de Gex.