Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.
Bransgore Community First Responders are unpaid volunteers who are trained and despatched by the ambulance service, to provide basic life support in life-threatening medical emergencies until the arrival of the ambulance service response. We operate in the west part of the New Forest area around Bransgore, Sopley, Burley, Avon, Holmsley, Beckley, Neacroft and often further afield. In 2016 our volunteers gave over 7112 hours of their time being on-call and were alerted to about 300 calls where a life may have been at risk. The hours included right through the Christmas and New Year period. Please do not confuse our unpaid volunteers with other organisations whose staff deliver a similar service for payment. We are better equipped and trained than most in this role. Our volunteers are motivated purely by a desire to help others at a time when they may be facing a life threatening medical emergency. Using our defibrillator and skills we have been given, we have been able to keep alive some patients in cardiac arrest who would otherwise have died before the ambulance arrived.
Through the support of our community and with some generous donations and a grant we have managed to secure a 4x4 vehicle for use in the Forest and a small response car for other local areas through a very kind donation from a local resident. Clearly identifiable, they are visible to those who are waiting on the ambulance, having made the all important 999 call. We do not respond on blue lights and sirens but being local we can be with a patient in just a few minutes. We carry a defibrillator, Oxygen, Entonox and other medical equipment to support a patient until the ambulance arrives.
We operate in some very remote areas of the New Forest where the properties we have to reach are down small unpaved and very uneven tracks. We have access through the locked Forest barriers to parts of the New Forest on tracks and paths to reach walkers, riders, tourists and cyclists in trouble where ordinary cars and vans could not reach. In the adverse weather we have had in this area over the last ten years we have relied on the 4X4 to get there and it has not let us down. Even some of the caravan and camping sites or activity centre sites can present hazards to our private cars and our response car which can be mitigated by use of a 4X4.
Ambulances can take longer to reach the remote areas in which we live because of the nature of the roads across the New Forest, the rural locations and the increasing demands on the ambulance service. Community First Responders with basic life support skills, the necessary equipment and the direct means to communicate with ambulance control can, and do, save lives.
Of course, even with the vehicles we still need to raise funds to pay for equipment updates, uniform, servicing and running the vehicles.
We encourage local businesses, whose customers and employees live and visit our area, to consider contributing to our Just Giving site - and remind them they may be eligible for tax relief in doing so.
The South Central Ambulance Charity manage our money for us and enable us to do what we do for the community. Any donation you make via this page goes specifically to our group for the benefit of the community we serve.
Thanks for taking the time to visit and we do hope you may be able to support us. Please see our website for more information at www.bransgorecommunityresponders.org.uk
Help us to Help our community at a critical time.
Thank You
