A year of many achievements and records broken!
2018 has certainly been a very busy year for the team, and we could not have done it without your support.
The team has remained unchanged with Leigh (Team Leader – R2050), Nicki (Deputy Team Leader – R2054), David (R2052), Mark (R2053), Sara (R2058), Bloss (R2059), Julian (R2096), Richard (R2199) and Fen (R312).
Our coverage area therefore remains unchanged, although in January we are looking to recruit further Community First Responders into some of the more outlying areas. The aim of this is to provide faster response times to remote areas, especially as demand on the ambulance service is increasing.
Very often also, particularly at weekends, our volunteers provide 24hr cover, often dispatched to multiple calls at the same time. Furthermore we have seen a record number of volunteer hours from the team, alongside a record number of incidents attended.
We at times have been asked why when a CFR is booked on duty, are we not dispatched to come and help you. Firstly, there are a number of call types that as volunteers we are not able to attend. An example of such a call would be a road traffic accident – as we utilise our own vehicles and therefore do not have the markings or lights that can be used to protect the scene, and mean we can safely assist. Also, when demand is particularly high, a directive to the Emergency Operations Centre, is that we are dispatched to only the highest priority calls, Category 1, calls in this category include cardiac arrests.
Annual Black Tie Event
Following the tremendous success of our Black Tie Event in 2017, we decided to hold another in October 2018 with the introduction of a professional Host and Magician to guide our guests through the evening, and entertain with close-up magic.
The evening broke through all the returns on the 2017 event, with it turning over £11,500 in revenue, and returning just under £6,000 into the scheme’s funds for lifesaving equipment and kit for the new frontline CFRs we are expecting to deploy in 2019.
Due to the enormous success of this event, we decided to release an option to pre-reserve tickets for the 2019 event, and within 48hrs were over 74% pre-reserved! Numbers have continued to rise since with the event yet again being staged at Barnsgate Manor Vineyard, who so wonderfully support us with this event. The date for 2019 is 05 October, and official ticket sales will go online in February 2019, with pre-reserved options getting priority booking, and notified of ticket release before the general public.
Overall, 2018 has been a record breaking year for our fundraising, with a total income at time of writing recorded at over £22,800.
Deployment of new Public Access Defibrillators in Crowborough
Such a record level of income allowed the team to sign off on a project of further Public Access Defibrillator deployments in the town, and we continue to strive towards further deployments in 2019. Our thanks go to Crowborough Town Council and Tesco Crowborough who provided financial awards that have gone towards this project.
As part of this project, we worked with Sir Henry Fermor School, running a competition to have a design printed onto the cabinet. From all the entries received, the team shorlisted a number of designs, the final one was selected by the children on the School Council and the announcement made at a school assembly attended by Leigh & Nicki. The winning design was drawn by Maisie Alexander (middle left), and if you take a look at the defibrillator cabinet mounted on the front of the school, you will see Maisie’s design printed on the casing.
The other new sites that were deployed in 2018, with enormous thanks to those involved, are at FieldBuss Newsagents (London Road) and Sport & Pilates Therapy (Crowborough Hill). We are very thankful for allowing us to site these units on their facilities.
Sadly it is not always good news we have to share, and earlier this year we saw the unit at the Town Hall suffer vandalism for the third time. The cabinet was opened, and it appears the intention was to pull the unit off the wall. This resulted in permanent damage to hydraulic rods in the cabinet, and required the cabinet to be replaced. Facing a cost of £475 to replace the cabinet, we are very grateful to Health Insurance Specialists of Tunbridge Wells, who kindly offered to fund the replacement in full.
UK HeartSafe Awards
We were honoured to have been shortlisted for a national award during the year, for our work in the local community. This was the first time the team had been nominated for a national award!
Whilst we sadly did not win our category, a huge amount of pride was taken by the team for being recognised at a national level.
We hope to be able to share with you during the next year or so, details of another prestigious award that we have been assessed for, following very kind nominations from members of the public in Crowborough.
Call Push Rescue
As well as running courses open to the public, we have partnered with Axa in Tunbridge Wells to deliver courses to their staff. Being one of the largest employers in the area, the courses are run periodically with several courses being run on days we are on site. As their staff live across a wide area, this is putting people with knowledge of lifesaving skills in communities right across Kent & Sussex.
Friends of Crowborough Community First Responders
Due to the every increasing fundraising diary, we have this year formed our new team of supporters, known as the ‘Friends of Crowborough Community First Responders’
We are very thankful to Reg, Dee, Amanda, Jaqi and Maureen who have formed the team, and we look forward to working with them.
Above are a few pictures from the events we have attended in the last year. In one run, we attended 7 events on 7 consecutive weekends!
Thank you also must go to SECAmb colleagues who have given up their time to help us at events – especially when you take a picture that accidentally looks like you have formed a new boy band!
Ongoing Training & Development
Once qualified, each of the CFRs not only goes through a number of statutory and mandatory training modules as dictated by SECAmb, but we are also grateful to the both Fen Sanders and Ben Marlow, for their time in delivering awareness/CPD sessions for the team, whether at local level, region level or by providing opportunities for members of the team to join them out on the road.
Lease signed for team HQ and store
With the fast growing activity levels of the team, from frontline responding, running CPR awareness sessions, deploying Public Access Defibrillators and co-ordinating internal and external fundraising activities, in December the team signed a lease for our own facility.
We would like to extend our gratitude to Composite Interiors for all their support in helping us achieve this quite momentus step in our team’s history. From our new HQ we run all our administration, financial, and operational functions alongside storage of all the equipment and consumable items the team use day to day.
Nicki Pointer (DTL) – 2019 London Marathon – #TeamCCFR
After successfully securing a place in the ballot for the 2019 London Marathon, our DTL decided to run in aid of the team and lifesaving equipment in our local area.
On this website you can follow training sessions live, see the last training result and also find out more about Nicki, why she decided to run for us, and also a link to be taken to our sponsorship platform – CLICK HERE
During training sessions or on the day of the marathon in particular, please tweet using the hashtag #TeamCCFR and we are able to relay via audio, your messages of support.
2019
As we look into 2018, we want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last year. Thank you to Mrs Jennifer Tate who has served in her second full year as Charity Patron, and for all the support and advice that has provided to the team.
Please do not forget that you can follow us on social media, and as it stands we are one of the most followed CFR schemes. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (using the buttons top right of your screen). If you would rather receive regular updates via email, then please sign up to our newsletter here.
If you are interested in helping fundraise for lifesaving equipment and training, then please visit our main FUNDRAISING section on this website for more information, or click the links below to fast track your donation or signup.
(We do not make any payments to our CFRs for their voluntary work)
From all the
Crowborough Community First Responder team …
Leigh, Nicki, Julian, Bloss, Sara, Richard, Fen, Mark & David
