Image by Peter Cripps
An outstanding 54 SECAmb volunteers were presented with awards for their life-saving skills recently, highlighting their significant impact within local communities.
The return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) awards were presented by Chief Paramedic Officer, Jaqualine Lindridge, at the Trust’s second annual volunteer conference at the East Sussex National Golf Course on Saturday, 5 April.
The awards highlight SECAmb volunteers’ impact in saving lives across Kent, Surrey and Sussex and supporting the Trust achieve its nationally leading cardiac arrest survival rate.
Thanks to the skill of colleagues right across the Trust, including SECAmb’s dedicated volunteer community first responders, emergency operations centre teams and frontline clinicians and along with members of the public, who have provided life-saving CPR prior to our arrival, an amazing 307 lives were saved in the 12 months between April 2023 and March 2024.
Community first responders and emergency responders continue to play a vital role in saving lives. A SECAmb CFR was on scene for eight per cent of resuscitation attempts and were first on scene in close to half of those incidents.
The volunteer conference, which welcomed more than 200 SECAmb community first responders, chaplains and support volunteers, shone a light on this significant difference volunteers make to the Trust’s work within its local communities.
Head of Community Resilience, Danny Dixon, said: “This year’s conference was a huge success! It’s important to celebrate our incredible team of volunteers and this is a great way to recognise their fantastic achievements and show how deeply appreciative we are as a Trust of their commitment and dedication.
“Without them, it wouldn’t be possible to achieve all that we do and so I would like to say a huge thank you, for helping us keep our local communities safe.”
SECAmb’s Chief Executive, Simon Weldon, welcomed everyone to the event, followed by an introduction from the Trust’s new Head of Community Resilience, Danny Dixon.
Throughout the day, volunteers were joined by guest speakers offering discussions on a variety of thought-provoking topics.
Chief Operating Officer at SECAmb, Jen Allan, discussed the impact volunteers have on the Trust’s day-to-day operations. Volunteer Lead at Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), Joe Crook also gave an overview of the national strategic picture for ambulance volunteers.
Treating patients with a hearing impairment, health inequalities and cardiac arrest and an insightful journey of Medway based Paramedic, Daniel Jackson, who started as a volunteer were also key topics of discussion during the day.
Guests were also joined by inspirational and motivational speaker, Anthony Bennett, also known as ‘Miracle Man’ who shared his inspiring story. Having fallen extremely ill in 2006 after contracting three serious viruses, Anthony was left fighting for his life and had to learn to talk and walk again.
Thankfully, he made a full recovery and played a major role in winning a £7.5m charity partnership between Whitbread PLC and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH). He shared how he then spent four years motivating teams across the world to support raising the much-needed funds for a brand-new cardiac wing at GOSH.
During the day, guests also had the exciting opportunity to look around an aircraft operated by Air Ambulance Charity Kent, Surrey, Sussex.
Find out more about becoming a volunteer at SECAmb here and how you can help us make even more of a difference within our local communities.