FOUR GIRLS from Inmans Primary School have raised enough money to buy a lifesaving defibrillator (defib) machine to be used in Hedon
The Helping Hands Lifestyle Team of Maisie Taylor, Natasha Tucker, Mackhea Alvani and Katie Hodgson raised £500 over the summer through organising a series of cake and craft stalls in the area. This left them with still quite a bit to raise towards the £1,700 cost of an automated external defibrillation machine.
That funding gap was plugged last week when the inspirational girls received a cheque from the Yorkshire Water Community Fund for £1,200 towards the defib machine.
“Following a Cardiac Arrest the chance of survival decreases by 23% per minute. It is therefore very important medical treatment starts as soon as possible. The UK Resuscitation Council suggests an AED should be available wherever medical treatment is more than 5 minutes away. In practical terms this means the whole of the UK.” – Community Heartbeat
Graham Stuart MP (pictured top-left) was delighted to be one of those presenting the cheque to the girls (along with Councillor Mike Bryan and Graham Dixon from Yorkshire Water). Only the day before he had completed training in using one of the machines himself, and spoke enthusiastically about the potential life-saving role such a machine can play (see MP learns lifesaving skills on HU12 Online).
The defib machine will be installed with the help of the Community Heartbeat charity and will be located somewhere easily accessible.
Congratulations to the girls – they have done us proud! The girls join other local groups previously announced on the Blog in getting support from the Yorkshire Water Community Fund.
Hedon also have a Community First Responder team currently 11 Volunteer members in total who are trained by Yorkshire Ambulance service. These responders live locally & we volunteer our free time to be on call with a full response kit including a Defibrillator & Oxygen to respond to 999 calls in the Hedon, Paull, Preston, Thorngumbald area. We are alerted / respond at the same time as the ambulance & because we live locally its hoped that we can respond quickly to various medical incidents such as Cardiac Arrests, Chest Pains, Strokes, unconscious persons.
We are always looking for new team members who maybe able to cover during the week Monday – Friday day time & even overnight if possible. Typically a team member gives as much time as they can when on call to provide an effective response, remembering that we are volunteers.
You don’t need any medical knowledge as Yorkshire Ambualnce service provide training, but of you already have some medical skills that would be helpful. If you think that you would be interested in joining our current team & live locally & want to make a differance in your local community or need more information please contact Gordon Todd who is the Hedon Community First Responder Group Coordinator.
Hi Gordon – We are looking at holding a meeting in Paull soon where there are 6 or 7 people interested in becoming First Responders – I will let you know when that is taking place. Hopefully you or someone else from the Hedon group can attend.
Hello Ray
Happy new year to you & the Hedon Blog.
As I mentioned we are always looking for new / additional team members. So the news that 6 or 7 people in Paull are showing interest in
Community First Responders is great.
I work 12 hour day & night shifts then 6 days off so if you could advise me of the date of the meeting as early as possible I will check my shift rota. I can give you some dates that I could attend if that helps, would the meeting be in Jan or Feb?.
Regards
Gordon
Ray
Any idea when this meeting is taking place. As we are looking for additional members & it does take some time to process paperwork & train new members before they become active. And training courses are only planned when Yorkshire Ambulance service have enough people to train.
Regards
Gordon Todd
Hi Gordon – There’s no movement on this at the moment, but will e-mail you when got more info to share. Regards, Ray
Hi Ray Any update on Potentinal new members From Paull?. Our Hedon team are planning an event at The large Co – op store in March. We hope to have a display ambulance on site to allow people to have a look around the vehicle & Have a chat with the CFR team & ambulance Staff. We intend to do a leaflet drop around Some parts of Hedon & I would suggest that we do some in Paull as well. Is this something that you could promote for us in the Hedon Blog?.
Hi Gordon – This is certainly something we can promote!
I think things will get back on track in Paull when the new Village Hall is finally finished being built (next few weeks).
Hi Ray
I will be away for a week in mid march.
If people in Paull who are interested in the CRF it could be a good idea to pop along to
The co op for a chat at this open event.
I will send you more details when I have them
Regards
Gordon