A group of Aberdeenshire life-savers is now officially on-call to respond to local medical emergencies.
Volunteer team, the Banchory Area First Responders, are now at the ready with first aid training and defibrillators after more than two years of work and fundraising.
The group was formally launched at the town’s annual fire and rescue service station open day yesterday with an appeal for more people to join the ranks.
The BAFR – supported by the Scottish Ambulance Service – is chaired by Banchory fire and rescue watch manager, Roddy Lees, and co-ordinated by local man Stuart Fraser.
Their aim is to assemble a large team of trained responders to deal with the likes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the community at all hours of the day.
Mr Fraser said: “We have been live for three weeks and are hoping to promote our presence and recruit new volunteers. We don’t have that many at the moment.
“The key thing is that resources are short and they are going to be most needed when someone is needing help and an ambulance is not available.
“We would like to provide 24-7 cover. At the moment, that is just not possible. Our defibrillators stay with the responders. We would like to be able to purchase a kit for every volunteer.
“I’d like to think, in a year’s time, we could have a core group of people to provide a commitment to respond and we would be able to offer a lot more coverage then we can at the moment.”
About seven people are in the early stages of becoming a first responder; whilst a number are fully trained.
Mr Lees added: “It is trying to bring everyone in the community, all the different services, together for a bit of community resilience.
“I think the more people that are trained, then the better chance people have of surviving.”
Yesterday’s open day – which included a host of activities for families – raised funds for the BAFR and the Fire Fighters Charity.
Fundraising is still on-going to provide the responders with as much life-saving equipment as possible.
