As part of our #CFRTakeover week, we asked our community first responders why they chose to sign up and train with us to become a CFR within their community.
Our first post is from Mick Churchill from our Dereham group.
“I’ll get the cliché out of the way; having moved to the area quite recently, I wanted to do something amazing that would be good for the community. For me, becoming a CFR was the perfect thing to do. As well as getting excellent training which has expanded my experience, it has also given me much more self-confidence.
Having been in the role for a couple of weeks now, I’ve been called out a few times. Each call has been completely different but in every case, I’ve got a real buzz from knowing I have made a positive difference to someone who needed urgent help.”
Mick Churchill
Dereham community first responder group
We will be posting more ‘Why I became a CFR’ by our volunteers throughout the week. If you would like to get involved, you can email us your blog at communications@eastamb.nhs.uk, tweet us using #CFRTakeover or post on our Facebook page.
East of England Ambulance Service Trust 
I joined the LIVES First Responders in Lincolnshire in 1999 to set up one of the pilot schemes in Boston. I ran the scheme for 3 yrs before moving away and packing up. I joined the scheme after volunteering for the Red Cross and realising how important early intervention is and the difficulties the ambulance services have with the geographical layouts villages and towns it is to have an ambulance in every area all the time. So when I moved to Necton and found out they had a scheme I joined as soon as I could and I am so pleased to support the EEAST.
Thank you for posting Daniel.
It is great to hear from the people actually out there doing it about why they chose to become a CFR and how they got started.