CPR-a-thon

South Central Ambulance Charity has partnered with Tanium, a U.S. technology company with a UK headquarters in Reading, to teach staff cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and help them complete a 24-hour ‘CPR-a-thon’ challenge tomorrow (Thursday, 22 September).

This was the idea of Tony Larks, senior director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) marketing at Tanium and a volunteer community first responder for South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS). The initiative is designed to not only improve life-saving skills and raise funds, but also to remember the life of a colleague.

Angela Davies, 41, suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest last year and sadly could not be revived despite the best efforts of paramedics, leaving Tanium staff determined to commit to doing all they can to learn CPR, raise awareness and pay their respects to Angela.

The event will see staff work in teams of eight to maintain 100 compressions a minute on CPR training manikins for 24 hours – around 144,000 in total over the period – with the aim of raising at least £6,000 for South Central Ambulance Charity.

In the UK, emergency services attempt resuscitation in around 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in every year, but just one in ten people survive to reach hospital discharge.

A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body, which is why CPR and defibrillators – devices which deliver an electric current to shock the heart muscle – enable anyone to provide help in restarting blood flow prior to the arrival of emergency services.

Chances of survival are two to three times higher with immediate bystander CPR – and a report published last year by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) found 35.5% of patients who received CPR from a bystander survived to hospital discharge.

Earlier this year, South Central Ambulance Charity launched a new initiative in collaboration with community first responders like Mr Larks and the community engagement and training team at SCAS to provide Basic Life Support Awareness Training (BLSAT) to businesses.

The development of this programme led to Tanium holding four training sessions for staff to equip them with the skills and confidence to attempt to save a life – and prompted the decision to launch the CPR-a-thon fundraising challenge.

The event will begin at 10am tomorrow (Thursday, 22 September) consisting of staff teams who have raised a minimum of £200 towards the £6,000 total which will go towards the community first responder (CFR) programme at SCAS.

CFRs are members of the public trained to support the ambulance service primarily by responding to medical emergencies and sometimes providing lifesaving first aid to patients before paramedics arrive.

They also assist with ongoing patient care at the scene and attend more than 30,000 incidents every year CFRs are funded solely by South Central Ambulance Charity, which provides equipment, training and is responsible for the vehicle fleet of 51 Dacia Dusters.

“Every year our company runs a month of giving as part of our #TaniumGivesBack initiative where we support community projects or raise funds for good causes and this year, given the sad passing of our dearly loved colleague Angela, it felt appropriate to do something in her memory with the agreement of her family,” explained Mr Larks.

“That led us to the idea of offering staff an opportunity to learn lifesaving skills and then use these skills for a physical challenge and charity fundraiser in aid of South Central Ambulance Charity and its community first responder programme which I am part of.”

He added: “I want to thank Angela’s family for allowing us to hold this event in her memory and to Tanium for supporting it. While there is a team-building part to the challenge, there is no doubt the skills people will take away will prove invaluable to them and they will go on to inform and educate others as a result.”

Vanessa Casey, chief executive of South Central Ambulance Charity, said: “We can’t thank Angela’s family, Tony and Tanium enough for their efforts to support our CPR and defibrillator awareness and training programme as well as help raise funds for our community first responders.”

Tanium’s CPR-a-thon marks the start of a build up towards Restart a Heart Day on Sunday, 16 October, which will see SCAS host a series of events and training sessions. It will also feature a number of case studies and films on CPR and defibrillator awareness.

Paramedic Nicola Dunbar, head of community training and engagement at SCAS and Restart a Heart Day lead, said: “Tanium’s CPR-a-thon is a great way to mark the start of our Restart a Heart Day activities and we want to thank Angela’s family, Tony and his colleagues for their support. We hope this helps to drum up further interest in the events we will be holding as we build up to the day itself.”

To donate to the cause visit: Tanium UK is fundraising for South Central Ambulance Charity (justgiving.com)

Community First Responders from South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) supported the European Transplant and Dialysis Games at Radley College and Blenheim Palace in Oxford last week (21 to 28 August).

First staged in Athens in 2000, the competition has been held biannually in nine different European countries – with the games coming to the UK for the first time this year and Oxford chosen as the host city.

Competitors were all solid organ transplant recipients or kidney dialysis patients of all ages and came from over 25 countries to participate, with the week-long event – organised by Transplant Sport – closing on Sunday (28 August).

Community First Responders (CFRs), supported by the SCAS Community Engagement and Training Team, provided first aid support alongside Transplant Sport’s own medical volunteers and the medical clinic at Radley throughout the week.

CFRs are members of the public trained to support the ambulance service primarily by responding to medical emergencies and sometimes providing lifesaving first aid to patients before paramedics arrive.

They also assist with ongoing patient care at the scene and attend more than 30,000 incidents every year. They are funded solely by South Central Ambulance Charity, which provides equipment, training and is responsible for the vehicle fleet.

Last Wednesday (24 August), South Central Ambulance Charity’s Chief Executive Vanessa Casey spent the afternoon with volunteers and participants for the badminton rounds and finals. 

Vanessa met some of the competitors including 86-year-old Michael Gibbons from Yorkshire who had taken part in the 5km run at Blenheim Palace the previous evening.

Michael, one of around 400 inspirational competitors, was fortunate to receive a kidney from his wife Ann and continues to keep fit, regularly training near his home.

One of Great Britain’s youngest participants was 17-year-old liver transplant recipient Oliver Edwards from Reading who also took part in the 5km and was then preparing to represent GB in the table tennis tournament. 

With just a day in between to recoup his energy, Oliver explained how he hoped to be selected for the World Transplant Games to be held in Perth, Australia in 2023 after completing his A levels in maths, physics and business studies.

Vanessa said: “It was inspirational to meet some of the competitors and a real privilege to present the medals for the badminton tournament.

“We are delighted that our Community First Responders were able to support this event and provide important first aid cover.”

David Lester, Community Engagement and Training Officer, said: “Our CFRs are highly trained volunteers able to assist and offer a first response if required. They really enjoyed the competition and being able to support their local community at such an important international event.”

CFR Ashley Woodruff said: “It was great to see so many great sporting games knowing we were ready to help the athletes If they needed us. Meeting competitors from all over Europe and supporting them has been a very rewarding experience for us.”

In addition to funding the CFR programme, South Central Ambulance Charity also raises funds to enhance services, projects and equipment across SCAS and support the health and wellbeing of all staff and volunteers.

We have been working with our volunteers and community engagement team to develop a training course in Basic Life Support to be delivered to businesses both big and small. The focus on the course is around how to help save someone’s life when in cardiac arrest.  

A cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body and causes someone to stop breathing and will collapse. Whilst in cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces someone’s chance of survival by 10%. This means anyone having cardiac arrest in the workplace would need your help, whether it is a colleague or a customer. Could your business deal with someone cardiac arrest?

Early intervention of CPR and defibrillation can drastically change the chances of survival. With immediate CPR and defibrillation within 3-5 minutes, chances of survival can increase survival by 50-70%.

Would you like to become a #BusinessLifeSaver in your place of work?

Our Basic Life Support Awareness Training (BLSAT) has been designed to give people in the workplace the skills and confidence to attempt to save a life. 

The training includes both theory and practical elements. The key aspects are:

• How to recognise a cardiac arrest using a primary survey
• How to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
• How to use an automated external defibrillator (AED).
• Advice and guidance to the #BusinessLifeSaver on how to reflect after delivering lifesaving support.
• All students will receive a certificate upon completion.

Class size-For the best student experience, we recommend a maximum of 8 employees with the absolute maximum group size of 12.

Where-The beauty is, we come to you.

Cost– We ask for a minimum donation of £200 per session.

Time-Depending on group size and interaction levels the session is designed to be between 2-3 hours.  

We would also be happy to discuss any bespoke requirements to meet your needs.

When our CFR’s log on to start their shift with us they never know what or how many calls they are going to receive. They proudly wear their uniform, helping members of the public, providing emergency care and keeping family members calm until the arrival of an ambulance resource on scene. For many of our CFR’s that training and sense of duty doesn’t switch off when the uniform comes off and they log off from their shifts.

Jacqui and Graham Reeve, based in Lyndhurst Hampshire have both volunteered as CFRs for the past 17 years attending many calls every week. Since April 2021, they have provided nearly 6000 hours of CFR cover between them. While off duty, they were leaving a local gym they came across a member of the public who was unwell with a serious medical emergency. Without a second thought both Jacqui and Graham used their training and knowledge as CFR’s and called for an ambulance and in the meantime provided care and support to the patient.

Their actions contributed to a positive outcome for the member of the public and the crew were grateful for their support, nominating them for a FERF award

Pictured is Jacqui and Graham in receipt of their FERF certificates which they received last week and our congratulations to them both. We thank them for their continued time and commitment as valued CFR’s.

As Volunteers Week comes to an end we are using today as an opportunity to look forward to the next 12 months of volunteering.

As you will have seen this week without the 1million+ hours that all our volunteers have contributed to SCAS we wouldn’t see paramedics being supported either on the front line or with much needed refreshments, patients would not have such the personal touch on journeys to their hospital appointments and of course our fundraisers make all of this and much more possible.

Looking forward we want to continue to provide more volunteering opportunities which will support both the Charity and SCAS further. Fundraising continues to be our priority as we aim to update all of our CFR defibrillators which will give the best care before the paramedics arrive on scene. In addition, we will begin to introduce more volunteers to more office based roles which will play an important role in helping us use our front line volunteers in the most efficient way.

We continue to be thankful to all of our current volunteers as all their roles are important to us. If after seeing all the incredible volunteering that they do and you feel inspired to volunteer with us then please look at our website for our most current opportunities – and in advance thank you for considering joining us. Mike Murphy, Executive Lead

We are grateful for our Volunteers who fundraise for us. From organising bucket collections, representing us at local events or partaking in challenge events our volunteers are at the heart of our Charity.  Rain or shine they are out and about within their local communities, raising awareness and supporting us with raising vital funds.

Without volunteers who fundraise our Charity would not be able to provide non-NHS funded projects, equipment, and services such as our CFR programme and Welfare Points. 

The last two years have been incredibly difficult for all charities, but our volunteers have continued to support us where they can. Many of our volunteers take on multiple roles within the charity yet they still carry out a lot of fundraising as an addition to their role and to those that do, we are incredibly grateful.

Tammy Angus-Senior Fundraising Officer said, “Fundraising during a global pandemic is no mean feat. Traditional fundraising methods came to a dramatic halt but the enthusiasm and passion from our volunteers never dulled. They continued to fundraise when and where they could. To every single one of our volunteers, I would like to say a big thank you for supporting the charity during very unpredictable times. You truly are the hidden gems in your communities.”

Today is “Thank You Day” as part of Volunteers Week. It is important to us that we recognise everything that our volunteers contribute.

All of our volunteers significantly are supporting SCA Charity and SCAS aims and goals. From fundraising to responding to an emergency our volunteers are truly special people.

Thank you for the miles you have driven, for the calls you have responded too, for the money you have helped raise, for the cups of tea you have made and for all the smiles and positivity you provide at difficult times.

We look forward to continuing to work with you all.

Our Patient Transport Service provides transport for patients to and from hospital appointments or at discharge. Our volunteer car drivers assist us with providing a friendly and professional service. All of our volunteers enjoy giving something back to their own community while meeting new people! With their own SCAS uniform they are easily identifiable at pick up points and are ready for a chat during their journey.

Emma Crozier, Area Manager for PTS said on behalf of the whole team  “Our volunteer car drivers are an integral part of the Patient Transport Service and they provide a vital service to those people who otherwise may not be able to get to their hospital appointment. The service the volunteers provide to the community is exemplary and they are committed to providing our patients with a first class service. We are proud to have the volunteer car drivers as part of our Patient Transport Service and would like to thank them for all that they do for our patients”.

When we needed volunteers to run our welfare vehicles we were very grateful for all those volunteers who came forward. Our welfare volunteers and our welfare vehicles are used at hospitals where there are delays in admitting patients.

Our welfare volunteers not only hand out tea and coffees (and the odd biscuit!) to frontline staff who are waiting with patients or are in between jobs but also have brief chats with them. These volunteers are very much appreciated and help us to continue to support staff at busy times.

Our small team of volunteers are able to sign up to a shift easily and fit their volunteering around their own lives.

Paul Jeffries, Assistant Director of Operations said “I would like to thank all of our volunteers who support us with their time and dedication in supporting our frontline staff and responders by giving their friendly can do approach in manning our “T-pot” vehicles. These vehicles allow our staff to keep responding and going the extra mile, I know that through your dedication support and selfless commitment our staff can do all they do. So please can I thank you both personally and on behalf of the Trust and our patients for all you do every day.”

We are always looking for new welfare volunteers and more information can be found on the welfare volunteers page

Our Community First Responders (CFR) are volunteers who often arrive on scene first and begin to administrate emergency first aid and continue to support the crews on arrival. Many patients are not aware that our CFRs are volunteers due to the high standard of training and care they are able to administrate.

Our CFR volunteers come from all walks of life from local business owners to members of other emergency services but what they all have in common is the want and drive to be saving lives in their local community and giving support to SCAS and our aims to provide medical care as fast as possible.

From the emails of thanks we get from both the members of public and staff we know how appreciated the CFR’s are but this Volunteers Week we want to make a bigger thank you to our CFR’s.

David Hamer, Operations Manager for Community Engagement and Training said “Over the last 2 years we have all lived through extraordinary times, our volunteers have been with us throughout, delivering first class pre-hospital care to those who required it in their communities and beyond. All our volunteers are amazing and this Volunteers Week I would like to say thank you to each and every one for their continued efforts and contributions”.