Donating to Good Causes

With these First Responders also able to record a patient’s BP, blood sugar or oxygen levels, responders are also able to report a patient’s conditions to paramedics upon their arrival.

People gave £11.3 billion to charity in the UK in 2020, up from £10.6 billion in 2019. The average monthly donation in the UK in 2021 was £49.

Source: www.nptuk.org

It costs around £2,400 to train and fully equip a First Responder, and to run the service’s First Responder vehicle. Completely self-funding, the service not only provides community first response for medical emergencies, but also offers CPR training in communities in return for donations to the service and has so far trained over 500 people in Rutland.

“The service started 11 years ago and we’ve volunteers from a range of backgrounds,” says Coordinator Barbara Crellin. “All of us are enfranchised in making a difference to our communities and to supporting our hard-working NHS colleagues.” n

STAMFORD KIWANIS was the organisation’s first group to establish itself in the UK, despite having over 250,000 members across the globe, mostly located in America. Back in 1973, two groups based in Stamford in the US and Stamford in Canada came over to visit their UK namesake and to establish a group over here.

Today there are 10 British Kiwani clubs over here, with the Stamford contingent and its 21 members making up about 25% of the UK’s Kiwani population.

Prior to Covid, the group held its summer parade of floats, and a replacement event for mid-summer is currently in the planning stage.

The group also hosts a firework event in November and arranges for Santa to tour the streets of Stamford the following month.

The group often partners with other local charitable organisations, serving as their fundraising arm to help them fund equipment or help out their communities. n