About Us
Colchester Community First Responders is a group of trained volunteers in Colchester and surrounding areas. We are mobilised to medical emergencies in our community, we look after public defibrillators, and we help teach lifesaving skills.
The role
What we do
Community first responders are volunteers trained by the ambulance service to help at certain types of medical emergency in their own communities. We are there in the early minutes, when what happens first can matter a great deal.
We work alongside the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust. They train us, they ask us to attend, and an ambulance crew is on the way behind us.
Alongside responding, we look after some public defibrillators across the area and help train basic life support and defibrillator awareness at events within the community.
- VolunteersEveryone in the group is a volunteer with a job and a life outside this. Nobody is paid for responding.
- LocalWe cover Colchester and surrounding areas and look after the public defibrillators there.
- Our own timeCover comes from members making themselves available around work and family.
Where we are
The defibrillators in our care
We look after public defibrillators across Colchester and surrounding areas. Every unit needs checking, pads and batteries have a shelf life, and units reach the end of their working life and have to be replaced. That is what our fundraising pays for.
This map is for information only. It shows roughly where the units we look after are. It does not show whether a unit is available, and it is not a way to get access to one.
Where we fit
Our responders are trained by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
The East of England Ambulance Service Charity, registered charity 1047987, supports first responders across the region.
We are a local volunteer group, and we fundraise so that the public defibrillators we look after stay in service and we can deliver community training.
Get involved
Two ways to help
Join the team through the ambulance service, or help us keep the defibrillators in service.