First Responders need your vote to clinch grant
SHEPSHED’S Community First Responders team is hoping to win two grants to finance the provision of 10 defibrillators.
The team of 15 volunteers, set up by Shepshed Lions in December 2013, work alongside East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) attending medical emergencies ranging from cardiac arrests, heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks, diabetic events and other incidents.
Now the group is hoping to win cash grants from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative and the Aviva Community Fund to help develop a special project entitled ‘CPR and Defibrillators - Dispel the Myths’.
Scheme co-ordinator Bob Lilley said: “The project is trying to raise £10,000 to purchase and install a number of Community Public Access Defibrillators across the Borough of Charnwood. There is a shortage of defibrillators in the community to provide the early treatment for patients suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.
“There is also a reluctance of helping such patients as people are not confident in providing effective Cardio Pulminory Resuccitation and using a defibrillator. We aim to train 250 people over the next year in the provision of CPR and using the defibrillator.
“I have been a First Responder for four years and sadly, during that time, I have attended cardiac arrests and people have not survived because they did not receive early CPR and defibrillation which may have saved their life. People are dying unnecessarily because people are afraid to get involved.
“This project aims to reduce the numbers of premature deaths.”
The group is waiting to hear if it has made the next stage in a bid to win an Aviva Community Grant, but voting is still open in the Tesco contest, with the group on a shortlist of three to receive a grant.
Voting is open in the following Tesco stores throughout November and December: Tesco, Charnwood Road Shepshed, Tesco, Park Road, Loughborough, Tesco, The Rushes, Loughborough, Tesco Leicester Road, Loughborough and Tesco in Sileby.
Customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.
Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see these come to life in hundreds of communities.”