We have donated £4,500 to Dronfield Community First Responders (DCFR), enabling them to purchase a crucial lifting chair.
The life-saving volunteers are dispatched by East Midlands Ambulance Service to appropriate 999 calls and the new equipment will be a huge boost to their operations.
Currently, if a DCFR member attends a patient who has fallen over, they are unable to pick them up and must wait for an ambulance, which can take several hours. With the new chair, they can help uninjured patients off the floor, freeing up paramedics and easing pressure on accident and emergency departments.
The group approached us after hearing about our work with local charities. Partner, Martin Birch, said: “The members of DCFR do an amazing job and have probably never been more in demand. When we learned they were fundraising for a lifting chair, we felt compelled to help. Hopefully our donation will prevent many elderly and infirm patients from suffering unnecessary discomfort and benefit families across the area.”
Neil Hayter, DCFR’s group co-ordinator, added: “All of our funding comes from public and corporate donations, so we are incredibly grateful to Belmayne’s partners for their generosity. They have enabled us to purchase the lifting chair much earlier than expected and we even have some money left over to begin equipping our new recruits with uniforms and PPE.”
DCFR was founded in 2005 and currently has nine first responders and eight new volunteers going through the training process. It covers the entire S18 area and can be despatched to Chesterfield, Eckington and South Sheffield. For further information about its work or to volunteer/donate, contact Neil Hayter by email: dronfieldcfr@gmail.com
