A VOLUNTEER community group from Wiveliscombe which has helped provide life-saving emergency care for nearly a quarter of a century has raised more than £1,200 toward the purchase of a second response vehicle.

Wivey Responders presented a cheque for £1,275 to the South Western Ambulance Services NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT).

The money was handed to SWASFT community engagement and training officer Paul Cosh during a ceremony in The Community Office, in Wiveliscombe.

The group was founded by the ambulance service in 2001 as part of its Community First Responders (CFR) programme and has been fund-raising for the past year to support its goal.

Group leader Paul Barrington-Heaven said: “We are very pleased to have achieved this by providing training in basic life support to various local groups, First Aid cover at events, and by donations from local community organisations.”

The second car will be used for responding to emergencies by Bristol and Somerset Responders, of which the Wiveliscombe group is part.

Trained volunteers from the responder groups attend incidents where patients are requiring immediate, life-saving care, and often arrive before an ambulance can reach the scene.

This can include incidents such as where somebody suffers a cardiac arrest, chest pain, breathing difficulties, and unconsciousness, as well as patients fitting or suffering from a stroke.

The volunteer responders also undergo specialist training to enable them to help patients who have fallen and are uninjured, but unable to raise themselves up from the floor.

SWASFT has more than 600 first response volunteers across the region who give their spare time to deliver emergency care in their local, and often, rural communities.

Last year, the volunteers responded to more than 20,600 emergency 999 calls across the Westcountry.

SWASFT is always actively recruiting volunteers for both patient-facing and non-patient-facing roles, details of which can be found on its website.