00:00So John, could I just ask you why we're here today at the House of the Wells?
00:07So, the House of the Wells is kindly made a donation towards Howard and Floyd.
00:13So we're up here to acknowledge the fact that these people are willing to fundraise for us and support us through the work that we do.
00:22Our job basically is we work along with the Northern Ireland ambulance service
00:27and we attend calls, anything from choking, diabetes to potential heart attacks
00:34to actually unconscious and not breathing casualties, which is people who need the likes of immediate help.
00:40What people don't realise is that one in ten people die of and out of hospital cardiac rest.
00:46So the quicker that we can get to somebody, the better it is.
00:50So working with Northern Ireland service, we get a text, a call with an address and a condition of the casualty.
00:56And we attend. We're all volunteers and basically we're based all throughout the city and we cover all the areas.
01:03The key thing for us is the fact that when we get a call, if we're able to go, then some of our members will go.
01:10You might get one member, you might get two members and if it's required to get rest, you might hopefully get three.
01:15And we could be there before the emergency services or at the same time.
01:19But because we've been trained with Northern Ireland ambulance service, they allow us to stay on scene.
01:25We can help them through resuscitation, we can work airways, we can do CPR, we'll administer the drugs and that.
01:33And we could be maybe 15 calls at the highest peak a day.
01:39Really?
01:40And we might not attend all calls because a lot of people here, people like Annette, who's a classroom assistant.
01:46Sean, who works for the care.
01:49And Connor, from all different aspects.
01:52All different walks of life.
01:53Walks of life.
01:54And some of them are working during the day, some of them not.
01:57Like we get calls 24-7.
01:59Right up like, last year I had a morning Christmas morning.
02:02Right.
02:03I was actually going to visit my mother and a call came up and it was right beside me.
02:06Right.
02:07And it's just because we carry the kit, we carry defibrillators, BVM masks to help with breathing and stuff like that there.
02:14And we're trained in all aspects for it.
02:16So we all carry a kit, but the kits cost about £15 or £1800.
02:20So there's a lot of fundraising involved.
02:22We get no help at all from NIAS.
02:24Right.
02:25They just haven't got the money to fund us.
02:27They do the training, which we really appreciate it.
02:29And the likes of my job is they might come on with a new technique.
02:33So they'll show me and then I go back and show our volunteers.
02:37And if anything changes through the resuscitation council, we're using for us to know as well.
02:43So for a lot of us, it's just something that we're doing for the community as volunteers.
02:48And how long is Heart of the Foy going?
02:50Heart of the Foy was originally started by a fella called Sean Dillon.
02:54Sean was in the car when his father took a heart attack.
02:59And he was at the side of the road and he phoned an ambulance and it was a nurse who happened to be passing.
03:05He was there to give him assistance.
03:07Now, whilst that helped, Sean realised the fact that if there was more people,
03:11he could just stop and have the equipment there.
03:13So initially, Sean was doing it on his own.
03:15Then he was able to...
03:17We had taxi drivers doing it.
03:19We all carry details because they're always constantly all around the city.
03:22But sometimes then the calls were lasting too long.
03:24Then when COVID hit, a lot of them stepped down.
03:26Because we're kind of volunteers, our training is ongoing.
03:30We could be training with NIAS every three weeks or every three months to every six months.
03:35And with COVID, then everything stopped.
03:37So a lot of people didn't take it back on.
03:39So then we put it out then to the members of the public.
03:42My background is outdoor education.
03:44I'm also a first aid instructor.
03:46So I teach first aid and I teach outdoor first aid.
03:49I've trained the likes of mountain rescue teams and stuff like that there.
03:52So when I wanted something to do, I asked Sean.
03:55And Sean says, look, come on board with us.
03:57The idea of the volunteers is the fact that at the minute we have about 18 active volunteers.
04:04But defib pads go out of date.
04:07We have to replace them.
04:09Kit bags, stuff like that there.
04:11And because we get no financial baggage from nowhere, donations from the likes of House and the Wells,
04:16it's really, really appreciated.
04:18And it's brilliant to see this today, isn't it?
04:19It's brilliant to see it.
04:20And we've decided that 2025 is going to be the year that we try and let people know who we are.
04:24Because we landed a call to House.
04:27And the first thing they say to control the phone,
04:29oh, the paramedics are here.
04:31And we have to say, no, we're not paramedics.
04:32No paramedics, aye.
04:33We're CFRs, we're community responders.
04:34We're here to help until the ambulance is great.
04:36Because we know the ambulance is on its way.
04:38But in the last year and a half now, the waiting times have been really, really long.
04:44Just because they're under so much pressure.
04:46And they appreciate us being there on scenes.
04:49Especially if it's a non-conscious, not breathing casually.
04:52They're really glad to see us because we're the extra set of hands.
04:55Especially if it's a rapid response unit.
04:57So them guys that they see in the cars, they might land.
05:01And we can be doing their CPR and they can be administering drugs and stuff like that there.
05:05So we work well as a team.
05:07Brilliant thing.
05:08That's great.
05:09And just getting the word out now that these are there.
05:11Just getting the word out there so people understand and realise the fact that, you know,
05:14we have to fundraise ourselves and stuff like that there.
05:17And it does, it does affect the organisation.
05:19So everything that helps, every bit that helps.
05:22And anybody who wanted to help raise funds, like how would they get in touch?
05:25Well, just go on the, we have a Facebook page, hard to find Facebook page and stuff like that there.
05:29Send a wee message.
05:30Send a wee message and then we'll contact them back if they have any ideas for fundraising.
05:34Or even if they want to.
05:36So what we've been doing this year too is, we've done it for the Death Society.
05:41Where we actually go on and demonstrate how defibrillators work and how CPR works.
05:46And how important it is to acknowledge when somebody's not breathing.
05:49We've done it for the UTA out at Crenshaw.
05:52We've done it for a couple of schools.
05:54Right.
05:55And it's just making people aware.
05:56Look out for your defibrillators around the city.
05:58Brilliant thing.
05:59And try and find out where they are.
06:00And know the fact that, if you make a call for an ambulance, for the likes of choking,
06:05diabetes or something like that, that we could be first there.
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