Back at the start of May 2020, we unveiled Alex Platov as our Contractor of the Month.
Having led by example from the moment he started his recent engagement as a Hydrographic Survey Party Chief for our client offshore Taiwan, Alex delivered work of the highest quality, accommodated changes to the crew change schedule and did his very best to ensue continued progress and success on the project.
He was a more than deserving Contractor of the Month for May and a very worthy winner of the £250 pre-loaded UTM Mastercard prize.
Read on for an overview of what Alex got up to in the early stages of his hitch, as well as the charitable way he has decided to use his £250 prize money!
Alex's Contractor of the Month Project
When Alex arrived offshore, a pipeline sour protection project-phase had nearly finished. The next phase of the project was scheduled to kick-off straight away… until there was an unforeseen delay to the project start!
Alex could have spent the unexpected downtime working on his back-deck Suntan and lapping up the view but, as there was still a lot to do, he got stuck-in to some fine-tuning and mobilising activities instead – maintaining and repairing some of the vessel’s survey-related equipment and frames that needed some TLC before kicking-on with the main Rock Dumping, Construction and Equipment Mobilisation phase of the project.
Together with the rest of his Survey team, Alex proactively used the downtime to improve the general condition of the vessel (something which was very much appreciated by the client as such work wouldn’t have been possible during regular operations).
When the green light was finally given for Alex to continue with the RockDumping phase of the project, he also made sure that he familiarised himself with client comments from the vessel’s previous engagement in the Baltic and proactively rectified a host of remaining issues that still needed to be solved.
According to Alex, one of the most challenging and labour intensive parts of the early phase of the project was when some specialist survey equipment had to be mobbed onto a “massive excavator” on the aft of the vessel to clearly visualise seabed and subsea assets during the construction phase of the project. The scale of the job at hand could have been daunting to some, but Alex relished the challenge and executed it to the highest standard.
Working hard to learn and progress are part of Alex’s offshore DNA, a professional ethic that he channels into his teams whist on-project whilst constantly reflecting upon his own abilities and working to improve them. Having worked with Alex on many projects, we know that Alex sees his profession as a life-style (as opposed to “just a job”).
To Alex, offshore work is a constantly evolving sea of knowledge and every hitch is an opportunity to learn something new (such as the photogrammetry study he completed during his last engagement), improve efficiency and create time and cost savings for the end-client.
Alex works hard, intelligently and with unrivalled integrity – which is why he has always been such a pleasure to work with.
“I have a long track record working with the guys at UTM”, recalls Alex. “I’ve been with them since the beginning – as they were getting established – and my career has grown with every trip. For all these long years, I’ve never been disappointed with the service I’ve received from UTM” he said, before adding “I always feel heard by the UTM staff. You do your best for me, and I really enjoy working with you!”.
Going the Extra Mile with his CoM Prize
Alex is no stranger to going the extra mile professionally.
Having knocked his on-shift duties out of the park, Alex’s downtime was spent penning an article about “Quality Assessment of Photogrammetry and its uses for Rock Dumping” whilst drafting another about physiological ways to cope with life offshore during a crisis situation such as COVID-19. Next-level proactivity, we think you’ll agree.
What Alex decided to do with his £250 prize money, however, really caught our attention.
Having read about a gene therapy drug for the treatment of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) called Zolgensma (the most expensive drug ever approved by the FDA in the USA) and subsequently finding out that a new born baby – Matvey Kulikovsky – in his home town had been diagnosed with this severe illness, Alex had no hesitation in donating his UTM CoM prize money and a proportion of his salary to a fundraiser for the baby in his hometown.
Alex hopes that by sharing some more information on SMA, some of his colleagues in the offshore community will also support the fundraiser for baby Matvey.
Zolgensma, Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Baby Matvey
Alex has let us know that Zolgensma is a gene therapy medication used to treat SMA.
SMA is a genetically determined pathology found in infants, preschool children, adolescents and adults and is accompanied by equilateral atrophy of neurons of the spinal anterior horns and roots of peripheral nerves, which leads to a decrease in muscle tone and progressive paralysis. In the first instance, doctors are forced to inform parents that their child will never be able to stand, sit and walk independently. Eventually, SMA causes the full loss of these abilities.
Alex learned that Matvey Kulikovsky was diagnosed with type 1 SMA at the age of 6 months. This type of SMA has a very severe prognosis and can be accompanied by oligophrenia and congenital heart defects.
Young children with this condition are at risk of severe respiratory failure and the development of pneumonia and, sadly, more than half of the children with type 1 SMA do not live beyond 2 years of age. Tragically, only 10% of sufferers will see their 5th birthday. At this age, the cause of death is often pneumonia, cardiac arrest, or respiratory failure.
Until recently, effective treatments have been few and far between but, recently, a gene therapy medication called Zolgensma was approved as a new treatment. The drug is administered once (in the form of injection) and vastly increases the prognosis for a young SMA sufferer if used before their 2nd birthday.
And yet, although this drug has the potential to save the lives of children with type 1 SMA, it also carries an eye-watering price tag: over USD $2.1 Million per treatment.
How to Raise Funds to help Baby Matvey Afford Zolgensma Treatment, like Alex Has Done
Whilst Alex’s £250 prize money and some of his salary seems like a drop in the ocean, he hopes that it’ll go a little way to helping a child in serious need.
He also hopes that, if you read this and decide to also help Matvey, you’ll click on the links below (in Russian but easily translated into English) and contribute a small amount towards saving a little life, too.
- The “Help Kulikovsky Matvey” Page: https://vk.com/kulikovskiy_sma
- Matvey’s Taplink Donation Page: https://taplink.cc/matveysma2019
Thank you, Alex - A Richly Deserved Contractor of the Month
Thank you for everything this month, Alex. Your professionalism and generosity have made you an incredibly worthy winner of our May 2020 Contractor of the Month prize!
