Please nominate LUCFR for the Movement for Good awards, to increase our chances of securing a donation of £1000 to keep our responders on the road!

At LUCFR, we strongly believe in continual training for our volunteer responders. Whilst we already offer in-person monthly training sessions, we have decided to create an innovative method for our volunteers to revise core knowledge remotely.

Our new revision quizzes have been built on existing ambulance service guidelines, and aim to offer responders an opportunity to revise core knowledge at any time. In particular, we hope that this will be useful after periods of inactivity (e.g. around exams and holidays) or prior to annual requalifications.

There are several benefits to our new technology-based revision methods:

• Revision materials can be remotely accessed using a wide variety of devices, increasing accessibility for our volunteers.
• Quizzes can quickly be updated in-line with new guidelines, removing the chance of out-of-date revision materials being used.
• We can actively monitor question performance. This will allow us to tailor in-person revision sessions to weaker areas, but also review and edit questions.

Quizzes can be accessed here.

Update: After a trial period, LUCFR have now made the decision to make our quizzes available to all East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) CFR groups. Scheme coordinators have been contacted with login details. We are currently limiting this to EMAS groups only as the quizzes are based on trust-specific guidelines.

LUCFR are excited to announce the launch of their 2020 Crowd Funder project, aiming to fundraise essential funds for our training equipment used for responder training and community engagement activities.

We have set an ambitious aim of £1000, which will allow us to purchase CPR mannequins and a training defibrillator. We believe that investing in training equipment will allow us to maintain excellent standards across our 999 responders, whilst also running sessions for our local community, teaching life saving skills.

During this Crowd Funder project, as a huge thank you for your generosity, we have secured some rewards which can be sent to you.

Crowd Funding Rewards:

• Pledge £5 or more = Receive a cool pin badge to say that you are proud to support the LUCFR scheme!
• Pledge £30 or more = Receive an awesome window sticker showing your support.
• Pledge £50 or more = Receive a shiny new mug sporting our logo to show your support.
• Pledge £150 or more = We will provide a 2 hour adult CPR awareness session for up to 6 people

Thank you for all of your continued support. A link to our donation page is below.

Adam Hurt recalls his first call-out to a cardiac arrest as a community first responder within the #LUCFR scheme:

“It was my first shift, Aradyha’s second, we had been waiting for an hour for a call out. Suddenly the siren sounded from our phone, we had been called to an incident. We grabbed our bags and rushed to the car. We had been told it was a head trauma, priority purple, just down the road. Navigating the one-way systems of Leicester, while talking through how we should approach the patient, was tough. Adrenaline was flooding our bodies. We arrived outside the incident, where an ambulance had already arrived, but there was no space for us to park. I jumped out to join the ambulance crew, while Aradyha parked up. I walked in to see around 100 people crowding round the patient, who was lying on the ground, and two paramedics midway through chest compressions. I leapt to their side, introduced myself to the closest of the two and explained that I was a First Responder. I was met with relief and was asked to take over with the compressions on the chest.

I have practiced CPR on mannequins many times with other volunteer agencies, lifeguard training and at medical school, but this was the real thing and I felt a lot of pressure. This was a real person. A human-being, in need of help. Help that that I can provide. I placed my hands on the chest and commenced compressions. I was counting out loud up to 30, but the ‘teens seemed to pass so quickly…time wasn’t working properly. I stopped as the paramedic squeezed the bag of air to fill our patient’s lungs…twice…I continued with 30 more compressions on the chest. I felt some of his ribs crack. I had been told numerous times that this was perfectly normal, and even a sign that it’s being done properly, but it still unnerved me. I almost wanted to stop. But I remembered my training. I continued. A few cycles of more compressions and breaths later Aradyha arrived and took over from me; swapping over every few minutes.

After around 20 minutes, during which another ambulance crew arrived, we managed to get a pulse. We had got a return of a heart beat! The patient was quickly moved onto a stretcher and whisked off to hospital.

I don’t think I will ever forget this experience, and feel even more motivated to log onto a shift and await a call to respond.”