Rutland Community First Responders has received a £3000 boost from Oakham Town Council.

Councillors agreed to help the group buy much-needed new equipment when the town council met last Wednesday.

The town council's newly-elected communications officer, Coun Zoe Neal said: "Rutland Community First Responders are all volunteers and the service receives no funding from the government, the NHS or East Midlands Ambulance Service.

"Normally the First Responders would fundraise through donations from Community First aid cover at local events or providing demonstrations of basic life support and CPR.

"Due to covid 19 the service was not able to fundraise at all in 2020 and it is looking like they will not be able to in 2021 either.

"Seeking alternative routes the group set up a Justgiving page and worked with Staceytastic Community fundraising successfully raising £2000 but knew they needed at least £5000 in order to update life saving equipment, equip new recruits with everything necessary and support their ongoing costs."

Coun Neil says after the Community First Responders submitted a grant application for the money, all the councillors voted to accept the application.

She added: "Oakham Town Council are proud to support the work of Rutland Community First Responders and hope they can continue to make a life changing impact to the residents of Oakham.

"The team are entirely volunteers and dedicate so much of themselves to our town and county."

Barbara Crellin of Rutland Community First Responders explains the role of the first responders.

"We aim to assist our ambulance service and our community. When we are available, we will "log on" and then when EMAS receive a 999 call in our area we are dispatched and arrive at the patient as soon as possible.

"More importantly the ambulance is always on its way too to support us. In the most serious of circumstances such as a cardiac arrest we provide life saving skills from the second we walk on scene.

"That means that we carry a defibrillator at all times, oxygen and other kit to take observations use our skills. The chain of survival begins with whoever walks through the door first; sometimes us, sometimes the ambulance or FRV.

"Our defibrillator that we carry saves lives, they are a necessity, but need upgrading every few years, servicing annually, new batteries and new pads (which have an expiry date), all of which we have to fund ourselves as with uniform and the rest of our bags and kit.

"Not every job we are sent to is life threatening. We attend a variety of patients all with different medical needs and of all ages; sometimes our presence is the reassurance needed. No two jobs are ever the same!

"We are also the "eyes and ears" for our ambulance service, we could get sent to what may have come through as a "simple fall" for example, but when we arrive that patient may be in a critical condition and therefore we can phone our control desk, speak to a clinician and get the call escalated. But no matter what our job, our equipment and training are essential to us and our patients."

"We do not have blue light training, no sirens and we cannot break the law by speeding or driving dangerously to get there faster. It is extremely helpful if someone is watching for our arrival but even more crucial that the name or number of your home is visible from the road or especially in the dark."

She continued: "We work alongside our ambulance crews, Helimed, EMICS, the police and the fire brigade, all one big team. It is an exciting role, extremely worthwhile and very satisfying, upsetting at times, and the day when the nerves stop appearing on way to a job is probably the time to "hang up our boots"!

"It is a big voluntary commitment, and we are expected to give at least 200hrs per year logging on plus another 100hrs doing extra curricular, such as training and exams and attend various functions. We all do much much, more than that though!"

"In February 2021 alone Rutland Community First Responders logged a total of 261 responding hours, 75 patients were attended for reasons including falls, stroke, heart attack, chest pain, collapse and infection.

"In many of these cases the Community Responders were the first people to arrive following the 999 call. On top of this they also provided 97 hours of cover at the Rutland Vaccination clinic."