Barmouth community first responders

27/10/2023

It’s with great sadness that we have to close the Barmouth responder page, and suspend the team activities.

Over the past 15+ years the team has had its members come and go due to personal and private reasons. Unfortunately like other teams along the coast we have struggled for members. We were running the team with basically two members, after Glyn left to join the ambulance service full-time, however he continued to help the team from behind the scenes.

I myself had to stand down for a period of time due to a serious medical condition that restricted my fitness to undertake certain tasks, likewise with Damian working full-time in an industry that became extremely busy during the summer months, we both found it difficult or if not sometimes unmanageable to undertake the amount of courses and requirements that the ambulance service were asking ourselves to undertake. After long deliberation, and chatting with Damian, it was decided that the team could no longer go on with such demands being asked of us with the ongoing training.

This was a difficult decision to come to, but after a conversation yesterday with the ambulance service, informing both Damian and myself that we had to reapply to become responders and undergo full training, enough was enough. They need to understand that we both run businesses and our time is also precious to ourselves. The training is unpaid and lasts a week, this does not take into consideration the continuing refresher training, and other course works that have to be done online and attending other training sessions.

We are fully aware that training is necessary to keep our skills updated. This was never the problem, the problem was most of this was during the summer months with what seemed to be a lack of understanding or sympathy. Taking a week out of work that would have been unpaid is simply not manageable having a family to support.

Sadly, this felt like just another let down in regards to the years of service that the Barmouth team had put in. Several years ago we had fantastic support and understanding, but like everything in life people move on and that support and understanding seemed to fall away.

During the Covid crisis the team offered our community a prescription delivery service that subsequently got the team awarded the Queens award for voluntary services, Damian and myself attended Buckingham Palace to receive thanks. However the team did not receive any recognition from the ambulance service or even a letter of and congratulations for becoming the first community first responder team to receive such an award.

If the ambulance service intends to continue and expand the first responder voluntary service they seriously need to look at the demands and requests they are putting on volunteers! It is clear that the ambulance service itself is just not coping with the amount of work they are being asked to do and with communities like ourselves being stripped of our resources, community first responder teams will become vitally important. I urge the ambulance service to consider the direction they are taking.

We hope that in the future a new first responder team will be set up in town to cover our community and its surroundings, as ex first responders we will be happy to offer any support that is required to help the team along, with any advice we can offer but in the meantime not wishing to leave this post on a negative note we have been in discussion with Glyn and Cllr Triggs to offer a suggestion whereupon you may still see some of us about offering our support to the community, but these are early days.

WATCH THIS SPACE

17/07/2023

We are looking at recruiting for the Barmouth first responders team, any one interested we invite you to send your details and a little bit about your self to barmouthfirstresponders@gmail.com

17/05/2022

The whole team and I’m sure the extended community would like to send our best wishes with our two fantastic team members Robert Damian Williams and Scott Moncrieff as they head to Buckingham Palace for the Queens tea Party tomorrow. We are so proud to have recieved the Queens award and so proud of Daim and Scott for going to represent us. Have the most amazing experience Both and take lots of pictures!

30/04/2022

Two of the team are off to Buckingham Palace to represent us. Scott Moncrieff and Robert Damian Williams

10/03/2022

Hi all. I’m sure it’s been noticed lately that we as a team are not as active as we have been in the past. There are reasons behind this which I’ll explain. In the past we have been able to book on and be available for jobs through the ambulance service and we’ve known we can go out , help someone and have back up and be cleared off the job in around an hour max. With the current pressures on the nhs, people thinking they get seen quicker if go in by ambulance (they don’t) ambulances are now sat out side hospitals for up to 8 hours waiting to offload the patients. The knock on effect from this is we as responders are taken away from our daily role for up to 8 hours. I work on a holiday park as does Damian Glyn works full time for the ambulance service and Libby is training to be a nurse. Soooo where can we just drop what we are doing and be stuck on a job for 8 hours. Once we make contact with a patient / casualty we cannot leave them until further assistance arrives. We do however still sort out the defib sites around town and will be called in exceptional circumstances like cardiac arrest etc as these calls are prioritised as red and take presidence. So theoretically help for us should be quicker. I hope this helps and maybe axplains a bit what’s going on at the minute. While people are still calling 999 with a stubbed toe or a slight cough to be seen quicker this will not change so everyone has to start using the system for what it’s meant. Life saving emergencies only. Thanks sorry for the long read. Scott

25/12/2021

Merry Christmas everyone from all the team.

25/11/2021

Good morning everyone. Tomorrow our team of responders are receiving the highest accolade we could have ever dreamed of. We really are humbled and were not expecting it at all. We as a team have received the Queen’s Award For Voluntary Service.
The ceremony will take place at the Min Y Mor tomorrow 26th November at 1100 I’d suggest 1045 as a good time to arrive. We would like to invite anyone who would like to come along and support us as a community team and share the experience with us to come along and share the moment.
Thank you 😊

24/11/2021

Hi all. We hope everyone is well. Does anyone in the community have a lectern we could borrow for Friday please? It’s for a presentation. Many thanks.

14/09/2021

The boys attended an emergency on a local caravan park. Immediate care was given and the casualty was handed over and taken off to hospital. Nice to get a thank you 😊

08/07/2021

Good morning all. Just a quick check in to let you all know that we are still here and ready to help when needed. I’m sure I speak for the rest of the team when I say we hope you never need us but if you do we are here. Scott.

06/06/2021

Hi everyone. Hope you are all well after a manic week. I’d like to personally thank Josh Bowater and Steff chambers for the help they gave me when things got to busy up my end. I know we have received this amazing award of which we are all incredibly proud. I can’t with a clear conscience not mention these guys. Thank you both. You really helped more than you are probably aware. So proud of this amazing community.

02/06/2021

BARMOUTH CFR TEAM GIVEN UK'S HIGHEST VOLUNTEER AWARD - THE QUEEN'S AWARD FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICE

A TEAM of Welsh Ambulance Service volunteers who have saved many lives in their community and assisted during the pandemic have been given an award of the highest calibre.

As part of Volunteers’ Week, the Community First Responders (CFRs) of Barmouth, Gwynedd, have been named as recipients of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS).

Community First Responders are volunteers who attend 999 calls in their community and administer first aid in the precious first minutes before an ambulance arrives.

They are trained by the Welsh Ambulance Service to administer first aid, including oxygen therapy and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as well as the use of a defibrillator.

Glyn Jones is a volunteer of 14 years who set up the team with assistance from the ambulance service after observing a team in nearby Harlech.

Glyn, 54, a former harbour master from Barmouth, said: “I don’t even know who put us forward for it.

“The first I heard of it was a few months ago when I received a phone call from the Lord Lieutenant of Gwynedd, Edmund Seymour Bailey, saying that he had been asked to consider us for this award.

“He wanted to know more about us and what we do, so I gave him the duty roster of what we do and some more information.

“He called again a few weeks later enquiring about our roles in the pandemic and again after that with a few more questions.

“I was thinking, ‘Hey up, where are we going with this?’

“And then out of the blue I got an email about six weeks ago telling us that we had got the award.

“To be honest, I didn’t realise fully what it was.

“It was only when I told some colleagues that they said it really was quite some award for the team, the top one.

“It’s been hard to keep a secret.”

Glyn, a father-of-two, has since qualified as an Emergency Medical Technician with the Trust having completed his training at the service’s headquarters in St Asaph.

Still acting as Team Co-ordinator/Manager for the Barmouth CFRs, Glyn spoke of the duties he and his team undertook during the first six months of the pandemic and lockdowns.

“At the start of the pandemic we were stood down from our CFR duties but still wanted to do something for our communities,” he said.

“I noticed long queues outside the pharmacist so approached them and with colleagues, Scott Moncrieff, Libby Catherwood, Adam Taylor, Toni Britland and Damien Williams, arranged a delivery service every day to get prescriptions to those in need and the elderly.

“We’d sometimes get as many as 300 a day.

“We’d collect them in the morning, go back to the harbour office, arrange them into geographical areas closest to where we lived and then go out to deliver them.

“Scott, Libby, Adam, Toni and Damien really held that together and were amazing.

“Whilst we were knocking on doors, if somebody needed a food parcel we would try and help with that, or if someone wasn’t well we’d make sure the ambulance or family knew about it.

“It was nice because we got to know more of our community and they got to know us.”

Once CFRs were kitted out and trained with their new Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), they were keen to get back out doing what they do best – helping to save the lives of those in need.

“We’ve been back on the road nearly a year now and were itching to sign back on,” said Glyn.

“If I could give one message to the team it is to say how proud of them I am for being who they are and doing what they do.

“They have selflessly thought of others before themselves.

“They are the core.

“They have been there through thick and thin.”

Created in 2002 to mark the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, the QAVS is the highest award given to local volunteer groups across the UK and the title will stay with the recipients for life.

It is awarded to outstanding groups of volunteers whose level of initiative and impact on their communities is deemed to be exceptional after a rigorous assessment.

In May 2022, two members of the team will attend a special reception at Buckingham Palace to formally receive the award.

Lee Brooks QAM, Director of Operations for the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “It goes without saying that volunteers play a huge part in Wales’ response to patients.

“The Welsh Ambulance Service is immensely proud of its CFRs and the work they do, particularly as volunteers have taken on new and additional training to respond safely during the pandemic.

“The team in Barmouth richly deserve this recognition for going above and beyond to assist the vulnerable in their rural community, including during the pandemic and also their daily commitment to safeguarding patients’ health.”

Volunteers’ Week takes place 01-07 June every year.

It is a chance to recognise the fantastic contribution volunteers make to our communities and say thank you.

This year is the 37th Volunteers’ Week and is being supported and celebrated by small grassroots organisations as well as larger, household-name charities, who together run hundreds of activities across the UK.

Get involved with Volunteers’ Week here or join in on social media by using on Twitter and Instagram.

Scott Moncrieff Damian Damo Williams Glyn Jones Adam Taylor Toni Britland Libby Catherwood

30/04/2021

16/04/2021

It is with sincere thanks to the Last Inn and the Town Council that Barmouth First Responders can announce that we have been able to place a New Defibrillator in the Gardens opposite the Last Inn on Scottish Powers Sub Station wall.

Scottish Power have been amazing with there response and getting permission for it to be placed on their building, not only did they approve it within 3 days they even sent a team down from Wrexham to install it for the town free of charge.

At present there will be a temporary Defibrillator installed until the delivery of a new unit that has been fundraised by a local lad who has moved away to become a Paramedic, Lewis Lodder, and our amazing community who topped up the fund with another appeal led by Rita Hunter and contributed to by many others.

Big thanks again to

The Last Inn
Barmouth Town Council
Lewis Lodder
Scottish Power
Rita Johnson Hunter
Kayla Morris
Jade Thomas
and every person who has contributed to this great cause.

What a community we are so proud to be part of👏

30/03/2021

What a beautiful day. We deserve a bit of sunshine. Happy sunny day to you all 😊 stay safe 🌈

15/03/2021

We are so very sad to share this news from our neighbouring team. All of our thoughts are with Liams family and friends at this devastating time.

Today the team wake up to the sad news that our friend and colleague Liam Ashton-Hughes passed away peacefully at Ysbytu Gwynedd Bangor. Liam was a gentle giant and always put himself forward to any activity we carried out. Liam went as far as gaining entry to Swansea university as a paramedic student but could not for fill his dream due to ill health. We will miss his smile his stature but he will never ever be forgotten. Sleep tight our friend and condolences to the family from all responders past and present @ Harlech first responders xx