COVENTRY COMMUNITY RESPONDERS RECEIVE FINANCIAL BOOST FROM HEART OF ENGLAND CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY

The Heart of England Co-operative Society has awarded £1,670 to the Coventry Community Responders (CCR).

It is the first donation received by the CCR – a registered charity – since before the first lockdown in March.

The CCR is made up of volunteers who respond to 999 calls and assist ambulance crews to give potentially life-saving treatment at the scene of emergency call-outs.

All volunteers are medically trained to a high standard by professionals at West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Each volunteer gives up at least 20 hours a month of free time on average. As well as helping with medical emergencies the volunteers actively fundraise for the group which pays for the purchase of its own emergency vehicle and the associated running costs, including tax, MOT, insurance and repairs, as well as uniforms and life-saving emergency treatment kit including a defibrillator.

Mark Tolan is Chairman of the Coventry Community Responders.

He said the past year had been particularly hard with Covid putting paid to public events such as the Ryton annual fete, often attended by the volunteers who raise funds and awareness with a Community Responders stand. Also, social distancing had put paid to the regular collections around Coventry which usually help to further swell the coffers.

Mark said: “It has been tough with no other donations since before lockdown in March. But we are looking forward to a good year this year. We have a quite a good number of people who are waiting to join us – this has probably been helped by the pandemic with people being put on furlough and using that time to give something back.

“We have people who are hoping to start their training early in 2021, and we are looking to recruit at least six or more volunteers to the team when our recruitment window opens this month.

“In addition, once events return to normal we are looking to exhibit with more stands and to step up the fundraising. In the meantime we are grateful to the Heart of England Co-operative Society for this generous donation.”