I was delighted to provide a donation of £2,000 from my County Councillor Community budget fund towards a new emergency medical kit and defibrillator for the Wantage and Grove Community First Responders. The photographs above show the new kit on display on Grove Green.
The community first responders are a group of local volunteers who provide emergency life support to the local community, dispatched by the South Central Ambulance Service to '999' calls whilst an ambulance is also en route. The group currently consists of 12 responders, but there are currently only 6 medical kits which have to be constantly moved round. This new kit means there will now be an extra one available to respond in an emergency, helping to save more lives within the local community.
The group currently respond to 40-50 emergency calls each month and rely solely on the generosity of local fundraising to support the group and buy new equipment and replace old kit. I was pleased that I was able to use funding from my last year's community fund before it was curtailed this February due to the current budget pressures at the County Council.
