More of What We Do
Danbury, Bicknacre, Little Baddow, Woodham Mortimer and Woodham Walter First Responders currently has 17 volunteers.
New volunteers are needed for our group (especially from
Woodham Mortimer and Woodham Walter.
WHO ARE WE? |
We are a group of volunteers, trained by East of England Ambulance Service, in Emergency Life Support and CPR. We live in Danbury, Bicknacre Little Baddow, Woodham Mortimer and Woodham Walter. |
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WHAT DO WE DO? |
If someone is suffering a heart attack, chest pains, choking or is unconscious, East of England Ambulance calls us to the patient. An Ambulance or Paramedic is also despatched. |
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WHAT IS OUR PURPOSE? |
Put simply, to save lives! An ambulance must reach a patient within 8 minutes. Living locally, a volunteer could reach a patient in 3 or 4 minutes. Minutes save lives. |
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WHO CAN BECOME A VOLUNTEER? |
You can. If you have a few hours spare per week or a few hours per month, you could be one of our volunteers. You must have access to a car and live in Danbury, Bicknacre, Little Baddow, Woodham Mortimer and Woodham Walter. . |
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WHAT EQUIPMENT DOWE CARRY? |
We carry a kit bag, containing a Laerdal Hearstart FR2® Semi-automatic defibrillator, Oxygen and a resuscitation bag and mask. East of England Ambulance supplies a mobile phone. |
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WHAT DOES A VOLUNTEER DO WHILST ON CALL? |
There is little or no change to our daily routine. We may be at home, in the garden, working in the village, or out shopping in the village. All that is asked is that the mobile phone (supplied by East of England Ambulance) is switched on, the kit bag is with us, and we are available to respond to a call. |
We meet once a month, usually the last Monday, between 7.15pm and 9.30pm at the Community Annex of the Danbury Mission. At these sessions, we conduct training as we now have our own instructors. We are able to refresh our skills and practice, which improves knowledge and confidence. We also discuss the types of equipment we need and we also have regular contact with the Ambulance service through our Link Manager, Stuart Berlyn. During our training sessions a Paramedic is usually present who can answer questions from members of the group and assist in training and conducting our 6 monthly assessments.
We arrange for volunteers to go out on a tour of duty with an ambulance crew to observe and to familiarize themselves with the way that ambulance crews work.
A visit to the Emergency Operations Centre (control room) can be arranged for volunteers to see what happens at the hub.
AN IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER!We are all unpaid volunteers. We are on call at times (within the rota) to suit ourselves and family/work commitments. It is a totally flexible system. Many of our volunteers have young families. We do this because we care about our community and genuinely want to make a difference. COME AND JOIN US!