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First Responders

First Responders are a team of local people who give up some of their precious spare time to save other people’s lives.  They provide early care to people with strokes and heart attacks.

Started in Calthwaite, the First Responders group have now been active for over two years, attending over 150 calls and providing over 3000 hours of care to patients and families as well as responding to life threatening emergency calls. Calthwaite First Responders are dedicated to educating the local area of the importance of learning basic life support skills.

Take a look at their YouTube video showing how to carry out CPR 'gangnam style'.  It shows that learning these skills is quick, easy and can be fun!

What do they do?

The group understand the importance of protecting the community and providing life saving emergency equipment to the area.  They provide as much coverage to the area as they can.  However the very nature of being volunteers with jobs dictates the hours they can sometimes cover, which is why the group have now started a project to provide a defibrillator in each village in the parish.   When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, which is where a person’s heart stops beating normally and they stop breathing, you only have a matter of minutes to save someone’s life. Due to the rurality of the area ambulance response times can sometimes be long; so there’s a need for a defibrillator in each local area.

The group have now placed a community Publically Accessible Defibrillator (CPAD) in Calthwaite, on Calthwaite School in partnership with the Cumbria and Lancashire Rotary club, in Ainstable on High View house thanks to the Moffat family, and have donated a defibrillator to the Cottage Wood Centre.  The CPADS are accessible 24/7 to any member of the public and can be accessed via a code given when making a 999 call.The cabinets have been manufactured by Green urban Technologies, in Penrith and the defibrillator purchased from WEL Medical.

You can see more about what they're doing on their Facebook page.

How can you help?

If you would like any more information about the scheme or would like to make a donation to help purchase the remaining 13 CPADS please get in touch with Lauren Watson, Team Leader on 07753 488 341 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..