Our responders are struggling to cover the 24 hour, 7 days a week that CPR requires. For various reasons we have lost some of our trained responders and this is putting a strain on the existing ones. It is worrying as we are coming up to the busy time of year when we expect to get more call outs and some of our responders have to increase the hours they work thus reducing the hours available to give to CPR. We are down to just 8 active first responders (plus 4 buddies) and after allowing for trips back to the UK, will be trying to run the full CPR service from a pool of just 6 or 7 first responders (assuming all are available) for the rest of the summer. At the moment we have two responders on call covering one shift. If we could find more buddies this would help ease the burden so responders could be on call with a buddy and thus reduce the number of shifts required of them, thus reducing their burden.
A buddy doesn’t need any training. They are there to support the responder during an emergency, talk to family and friends of the victim and generally help and assist where they can.
We need Buddies!
I cannot stress this enough – residents or holiday makers. If more people don’t come forward to be buddies or willing to train as responders we will have to seriously consider our options and look at the future of CPR. CPR is a worthy cause, it is something Condado has which gives a security blanket for old and young alike. CPR needs a whole community approach to make it successful. The committee can raise money, publicise the service but we cannot seem to get volunteers.
We need your help.
We need you to become a buddy.
To be a buddy you just have to be prepared to stay on site for the duration of your shift, be close to the CPR phone and able to speed to an emergency by car or bike if necessary. Think how great you could feel, sunbathing and relaxing by the pool knowing that you were doing a service to your community - if you are on call for CPR - what a great excuse for a completely lazy day. We have a responder who is 7o, so age is not an excuse. If everybody did just one shift whilst they were on holiday then CPR would be strong all year round. So come on, support your community and volunteer to be a buddy even for a day! If you feel you can volunteer to be a buddy then contact our rota manager – Eliza King at rotamanager@cprcondado.com or me through the website. Remember :
CPR needs you!