Latest news

04/09/2005 Local Lad does good.


As much as it is not in our nature to brag, one of our responders was recently awarded a commendation for his actions at a major incident last year.

Paul, who has been part of the responder scheme for about six months, was attending a festival in a private capacity when the grandstand collapsed, taking with it many of the people standing on that part of the structure. You can see a (very grainy) image of the front page of the local paper the next day by clicking here

The event was being covered by St John ambulance Lincolnshire, and Paul, a member of St John here in Suffolk and being so close at hand got stuck in, and was one of the first on scene.

Paul said 'I am really embarrassed by all the attention if I am honest, I can't remember blushing so hard or often. I simply did what I was trained to do, anyone of my colleagues would have done the same. I was deeply impressed by my St John Lincolnshire colleague they were a real credit to the organisation'

The award, by the Chief Commander of St John Ambulance, was reported in both The Evening Star and The East Anglian Daily Times

In a final flurry of extreme embarrassment Paul was interviewed by Lesley Dolphin on BBC radio Suffolk. Paul was interviewed as part of an article discussing St Johns launch of a very cool free service called IFirstAid. A recording of the interview can be heard by clicking here.


14/7/2005 Record Day.
Happy to say things have generally levelled off in the past few weeks since our record month, dropping from a high of 80 to a relatively sedate 60 or 70 calls a month.

Bucking this trend was Tuesday 26th July, with 12 calls it was the busiest day in the schemes history. Paul was providing cover whilst working from home (his employer, BT, is very good like that).

Paul said 'Normally there is only a call or two at most during the average working day, which is fine as I can fit it around my normal daily work. Tuesday was just mad, no sooner had I sat at my desk and the phone would go off again.

There didn't seem to be any particular cause for the blip in the call numbers, they were all varied and valid emergency calls. It was very rewarding and I'm was happy we were able to help out.

I'll confess that I was very relieved when another responder, Phil, called to ask if I'd like him to take over to give me a break .... after my eighth call.'


14/7/2005 Radio Comms.
Our Friends in Firemed kindly donated 3 VHF radios; these allow us to co-ordinate our response to incidents in ways that just weren't possible before, thanks again.

1/7/2005 Publicity drive.
With the launch of the web site we made a big publicity push (well big by our standards, we really are pretty poor at this sort of thing). We got articles published in the Woodbridge and Melton free papers, and rather interestingly the Kesgrave papers too, which is ironic as they are starting their own scheme soon.

News Archive
The good thing that came out of that drive was a few new responder volunteers, which is great, we'll introduce them later once they have overcome their initial shyness.

The thing we could really do with now though is someone to be a fund raiser, a less exciting role but with the funds running a little on the low side an essential part of the whole operation, so if there is anyone out there who would like to get involved but can't bear the sight of blood, or being woken in the wee small hours, you can still help us out.


8/6/2005 Web Site Launched
Well the latest news from the Woodbridge Responders is the launch of their new web site (be self indulgent for a little while). We have high hopes for this site ...... publicity, communications etc

4/6/2005 BT Community Champions Award Granted
BT's community champion award has granted our scheme a £150 grant. As you probably know we are funded purely via voluntary donation, so this was very welcome, cheers BT !

1/6/2005 Record breaking Month!
May saw the busiest month since we formed, with over 80 responses. Co-incidentally May also saw the first anniversary of our formation. This now makes us one of the busiest (if not actually the busiest) schemes of its type in the region




Last Updated 14/8/5