First Responders - Glanton Village Community Website. Northumberland. UK.

Glanton, Powburn & Whittingham First Responders

  After suffering a heart attack 11 years ago, it was suggested to me by the health professionals that we should consider setting up a Community First Responder Scheme in Glanton.  Due to the response time for an ambulance to arrive, especially in a life threatening situation, these volunteers are an invaluable resource to any community – especially one as rural as ours.

  Community First Responders (CFR), at that time had to purchase all their own equipment.  My wife Joan and I took to the task of raising funds.  The funding for the equipment required came from various trusts and organisations. Enough funds were raised to set up schemes in the three villages of Glanton, Powburn and Whittingham.

  CFR schemes are now provided with all of the equipment from North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NEAS) to enable them to carry out their role.

  Some time ago, we made the difficult decision to retire from our CFR scheme.  This left us with the dilemma of what to do with the remaining funds raised.  After much consultation with the scheme members, the decision was made to use the remaining monies to fund Public Access De-fibrillation (PAD) sites in the following locations:

·   The Queens Head – Glanton
·   The Plough – Powburn
·   The Memorial Hall – Whittingham

     The defibrillators will be stored inside purpose made re-enforced steel boxes which will be placed on the outside of the buildings.  The defibrillators are accessible via a key code and will be maintained by NEAS.  This means that in each village, there will be a defibrillator available, should the need arise, at all times.  I hasten to add that these PAD sites do not replace the CFRs.  There will still be CFRs in the area.

      There will be a familiarisation session taking place later in the year – details of which are available below.  We would encourage as many of you as possible to take the opportunity to attend this informal but informative session.

  Any remaining funds will be donated to the parish councils to be used for community puposes.

            We would like to take this opportunity to thank all CFRs – past, present and future for their continued support to the schemes.  We would also like to extend our appreciation to the NEAS, paramedics and support personnel.


Joan & Mike Mason
August 2011