Bloxham Broadsheet

VOLUNTEERS are needed to help save lives in Bloxham.
Parish Councillors have agreed to spend £2,000 on a defibrillator – a machine that jump starts people’s hearts during a cardiac arrest.
Now residents are needed to ensure the life-saving equipment is always on hand in an emergency.
Working with paramedics from South Central Ambulance Service, volunteers will be trained as community first responders, who are on call to answer 999 calls across the village.
The scheme is already in operation in other rural areas of Oxfordshire where it is sometimes difficult for an ambulance to arrive within the life-saving 10 minutes following a cardiac arrest.
Community first responders ensure patients receive vital treatment within minutes of their request for help, before paramedics arrive and take over.
In May alone, ambulance crews responded to eight life-threatening 999 calls in Bloxham, so community first responders would play a vital part to their service in the village.
Volunteers would be able to choose when they are available for duty, they would not be sent to unsuitable or dangerous calls and would receive free training and uniforms.
Anyone who would like to sign up should contact South Central Ambulance Service Community Responder Training and Liaison Officer David England by calling 0800 587 0207 or emailing cfr@scas.nhs.uk.
More information is available on the trust’s website at www.southcentralambulance.nhs.uk.