|
After five years and countless call outs Terry Crawley from Lochranza has retired from the Arran First Responders Group.
Terry turned 70 this year and this age is the cut off point for First responder members.
Terry said: ‘It is annoying that I have to bow out now but the age limit is there for a reason and I have to respect that.’
One of the founding members of the emergency group, Terry had been campaigning for a volunteer emergency ambulance group ever since a friend from Lochranza died of a heart attack.
In many parts of Arran it can take an ambulance up to 40 minutes to reach a casualty.
‘There were volunteer groups for everything- like the fire brigade, coastguard, and lifeboat- but no emergency service,’
Terry explained. ‘We all recognised a need for a group which could attend medical emergencies while we wait the half an hour for the ambulance to arrive.’
Back in 1995 Heartstart was created which was a similar idea whereby anyone could learn the basics of emergency first aid. But many thought that it wasn’t enough.
Terry explained: ‘When we first heard about First Responders it was a great idea. We would be a specially trained group who would be able to perform CPR and try and keep heart attack sufferers comfortable until paramedics arrive.’
Every time someone dials 999 from the North of Arran and asks for an ambulance the First responders are alerted too.
Along with Norman Bond, Terry attended the first official First Responders call out to an American woman who had fallen into the river at Glen Sannox.
Since then Terry says he has lost count of the number of times he has been called out.
‘On average we get about one or two call outs a month,’ he added, ‘that’s nearly 120 call outs since we began in 2002.’
First responder chairman Fiona Laing said: ‘We are so grateful for the enormous support Terry has given to the group even before we got started.
‘We’re all hugely appreciative of the work he has done and we hope that he will continue to be involved.’
