Community First Responders (CFR's) are trained by the Ambulance Service to give immediate medical assistance in the local community to reduce the time spent waiting for a fully equipped ambulance  to arrive. In case. The aim is to start and maintain the chain of survival in cardiac arrest patients in rural areas where emergency medical services response is likely to be delayed beyond the approximate 8–10 minutes
during which a cardiac arrest is likely to become irreversible.

As CFR's we only receive basic mileage expenses and we are totally reliant on charitable donations for supplying our equipment. In 2005 I raised £1,500 to enable this service to be started in Buckland and now I am seeking to raise more money to upgrade old equipment and purchase new devices which will be use to provide assistance to people in our community.

I became a CFR after my Mother, living near Woodstock, collapsed with a serious heart condition and had to wait more than 30 minutes for an ambulance. Since then the South Central Ambulance Service have created a network of CFR's across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire to tackle the problem of response times in rural areas.

Hopefully you will never need this service but I hope that you want to
support me in my efforts to provide support within the community which means that should you ever require urgent medical assistance that you will be able to receive basic support within 2 - 3 minutes of making your emergency call.

Many thanks for your support.

Mike Sheil