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  History

History of our team and First Responders in Cumbria

In 1998 the the idea was presented to interested parties by Ron Williams at a publicised meeting with names being taken for potential team members. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the ambulance service. The interest was evident and a group of volunteers were trained by the ambulance service and we formed as a Team with a committee in December 1998. We were formally established as a charity in 1999 - and were I think only the second Community First Response Team in the country.

We had a great start courtesy of the Cumbrian Newspapers Group who gave us our first defibrillator, and then donated £700. The Parish Councils also donate money regularly and we have had donations from New Balance shoes, Lloyd Motors, Lady Lionesses, Neighbourhood Forum, Rotary, Lennie and many more, plus members and their partners, villagers, local pubs and shops through donations fundraising or sponsorship. 

Our Call Sign Number with ambulance control is CR01, (so we really are number1!). We cover approximately a 5 mile radius from the villages of Great and Little Broughton and Brigham, this also included Cockermouth. We have been tasked to go outside this area on quite a few occasions, but this is less common now as other teams are coming on stream.(As from June 2002, Cockermouth has a team of its own, though both teams operate on the same pager number. This was initially to "back up" the new team as a sort of mentoring system, and now that they are up and running we turn out whenever we feel they may be "light" on the ground (usually during the day, during the week when volunteers are at work and a couple of their team members also do the same for us.). Having said that, a few members belong to both teams.

We have the backing of local Doctors especially Dr. David Lees and Dr. Andy Butler and it is because of their support and the Cumbria Ambulance Service who at the time had the foresight to allow and support First Response teams, (quite an undertaking at the time). This resulted in the Ambulance Service , in the form of Ralph Palmer, who took a chance and trained a motley crew of volunteers - and now we are proud of our status and are professionals in what we do.

As the first team in the county we obviously trialed different types of activation methods etc. and it is our team set-up that has acted as a “blueprint” for all the rest in the county and hundreds across the UK. In addition we have helped many teams across the country and even in Canada, where we now have a close contact with a team in Quebec.

 

Ralph Palmer Chairman, is also a Paramedic  and trainer. He is the representative of the ambulance service and so I expect he has had a few sleepless nights worrying about what we may get up to next. (This website being one of them). Still he can always disappear into his pigeon loft for a few hours respite.

Margaret Light, Secretary,  has agreed to be Secretary, what a star!

Russ Cockburn Treasurer is mean enough to do the job.

Nicky Cockburn IT Girl, sexy and gorgeous what more can I say!

 

The whole team is the committee.

 

 


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