Castleisland First Responders launch on Friday night

AN INVITATION to members of the community in the general Castleisland area was issued by Castleisland First Responders spokesperson, Oorla Casey and coordinator, Andrew Foran ahead of the announcement of their official launch night on Friday night at the River Island Hotel.

They also invited members of the community to attend and there was a deep sense of pride at what the responders have achieved since just the spring of this year.

The meeting heard that the unit is in a healthy financial state as a result of their hard work and fundraising activities in the course of the year.

There were also some demonstrations of life saving devices and operations after the announcements and speeches.

The unit members thanked those who helped them with their fundraising activities and they mentioned, in particular, Walsh Colour Print, Educate. ie and Cara Credit Union and all the businesses in this and neighbouring areas which involved themselves in the golf classic in August.

Their praise giving also extended to two local men who played big parts in getting the plans for a local responder unit to a reality.

Denis Kerin and Eamon O’Connor were credited with mentoring and supporting the incoming group members to the extent that the unit is ready to go live this week.

Their eight month long campaign entailed holding public meetings, inviting speakers, getting their message out and about throughout this and neighbouring parishes.

They also organised a successful coffee morning in June with the golf classic in August as a means of fundraising for equipment and training facilities ahead of a formal launch and in September they also received a €1,000 cheque from the River Island Hotel Card Players’ Fund.

The Castleisland unit has been set up on the basis that it will provide locally, trained volunteers to assist the National Ambulance Service responding to high priority emergencies.

And group coordinator, Andrew Foran announced that each of the neighbouring parishes will have trained volunteer units under the auspices of the Castleisland First Responder Unit to deal with any emergency that may arise.

Its members will be involved in situations where early intervention may be the difference between life or death.

The volunteers will be activated by ambulance control when a call is made for a stroke, chest pain, cardiac arrest or a person choking within the area of Castleisland, Cordal, Currow and Scartaglen.

Free training will be provided to the volunteers who will become part of an on-call rota system to service the area.

Photo by John Reidy Castleisland First Responders Chairman Neil Browne (left) with Siobhán Donnelly, Cara Credit Union; Alan Hanafin, Kerry Civil Defense and Mairéad O’Connell, Castleisland First Responders at Friday night’s launch at the River Island Hotel.