South Warwickshire community first response group launches fundraising campaign for new vehicle

The Ettington Community First Responders cover a wide geographic area responding to incidents in and around rural villages from Tysoe, to Gaydon, to Kineton to Ashorne to other villages around Shipston and Stratford too.

They are a group of volunteers who provide first-response medical care in the Stourdene region of South Warwickshire and beyond. They respond to 999 calls in partnership with the West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust.

Community First Responder schemes are teams of volunteers trained by ambulance services to a nationally recognised level that enables them to provide lifesaving treatment to people in their local communities. Community First Responders (CFRs) are always backed up by the nearest available emergency resource.

James O'Neil, with the Ettington Community First Responders, said: The fundraising project is aimed at replacing our now 10 year old response vehicle, this tied with the fact we have to update all of our colour scheme to match the new generation.

"We do not receive local, central, NHS or any form of government funding and are solely reliant on the good will of all of the communities we provide our life saving service to, all 60 of them. We are launching this project after being turned down for lottery funding on two occasions."

The team of first responders have provided nearly 7,000 hours on-call over the last 12 months, and have attended nearly 200 emergency call outs to its rural communities.

The first responders team, a registered charity, has launched a JustGiving web page to help raise the money needed to purchase a new response vehicle.

They are now in their third month of the fundraising campaign. They have raised £4,200 towards their £28,000 target.

Anyone who would like to contribute to the fundraising campaign entitled the 'Road to Recovery: Help us to keep on helping you' can use the following JustGiving web link: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/ettingtoncfr-roadtorecovery

Their aim is to fund a four by four, fully marked and kitted response vehicle to support their activities throughout the year.