Every Minute is Vital by Lorely Burt MP

If you or any member of your family ever suffers from a heart attack or stroke and needs fast medical help to save your life, you may owe your survival to one of the trained Community First Responders who can get to the scene before the ambulance arrives.

The sooner you can reach someone who has suffered form a heart attack, the better chance they have of making a good recovery. That’s why every minute is vital.

These First Responders are trained by West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, but it costs around £2,000 to kit out each member of the team.

That’s where the role of local charity, Fastaid comes into play. Fastaid was established just two years ago and has been able to support local First Responder team members based in Solihull, Olton, Dorridge, Acocks Green, Sheldon and Knowle.

Community First Responders are volunteers, trained to a nationally recognised standard, to provide life-saving treatment to people in the community. They are called out by the ambulance service if it is thought they can get to an incident first. The volunteer usually covers areas within seven minutes travel from home or work.

In the UK 135,000 people die each year from a heart attack; two thirds of these happen outside of the hospital environment. The only effective first aid treatment for a heart attack is defibrillation. All Community First Responders carry Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) for shocking the heart back into action. Every minute a defibrillator is not used reduces the chances of survival by 7-10%, so CFRs do save lives.

Fastaid is totally self-funding and without the generous support of the community, they couldn’t operate. Companies and organisations such as Touchwood, Land Rover, Sainsbury’s and the British Heart Foundation have all provided funding. Local Solihull sports groups, community groups, Mayor of Solihull’s Fund and events such as Solihull Carnival have also provided much needed additional support.

If you are a locl business, organisation or individual who would like to help Fastaid equip more trained CFRs the email info@fastaid.org.uk Lives may depend on it!

Article written by Lorely Burt MP for Solihull Times