Bransgore Community First Responders
Registered Charity No: 1049778-1Bransgore, in the New Forest, Hampshire, England
Residents in Bransgore wanted to start a Community Responder scheme for the village and local area but did not have the required funding to start up. The scheme was to cover an area of about 20 square miles around Bransgore, or to put it another way about a 5 minute drive from the centre of the village.
Bransgore Rotary Club and Christchurch Lions raised enough money to start us off. The money was needed to purchase the emergency life support equipment bag and the all important defibrillator, and to pay for and kit out the individual volunteers. Initially six volunteers were trained and in January 2006 the group became operational. The first emergency call was received on the very night they went live and calls thereafter averaged about 4/5 a week.
Because the group is required to be self sufficient and receives no direct funding from the ambulance trust or government, fund raising is necessary to pay for the equipment used caring for patients. This equipment includes oxygen masks, airways, dressings, and resuscitation equipment. Through street collections, discos and the support of grant awarding charities we raised enough money to continue after the first year, and with more volunteers and more equipment, aim to improve the quality of the service provided and the speed of response.
