Alness coordinator's 'pride' after six years of growth for Ross-shire lifesavers
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The coordinator of an Easter Ross-based community response team has spoken of his pride after being named as a finalist for a national award.
Having established Alness and Evanton First Responders six years ago, Michael O'Neill has watched his Ross-shire wide group of first responders and volunteers evolve into an essential community resource across the county.
Mr O'Neill, from Alness, first decided to establish the group – which is now called Emergency Community Rescue – when calling for ambulance for his mother in Inverness.
He said: "The ambulance was here pretty quick, but I wondered what would happen, heaven forbid, if I need to call for ambulance for my wife, or someone else in the Ross-shire area? There's only one ambulance in Alness and if that ambulance is dealing with someone else or in Raigmore, then no one is going.
"I discovered that other areas had first responders – sort of like special constables but for the ambulance service – but it was not something we had up here. So, after some fundraising, I got the scheme up and running and since that time we've attended hundreds of 999 calls.
"We are trained by the Scottish Ambulance service to a high standard, and we are dispatched by radio and attend 999 calls in the same way an ambulance would. We've also been trained to become cardiac responders too, which means we can be alerted off-duty to attend cardiac responder calls."
Last month, Mr O'Neill was recognised as a finalist for the "Newton award", after an anonymous nomination from a member of the public.
The award – presented in memory of Gregor Newton who survived a cardiac arrest in 2014 – was created to recognise the outstanding work that is carried out by community first responders, paramedics and police across the country.
Mr O'Neill believes that the recognition is a just reward for the growth of the charity over the past six years.
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He said: "We now cover a larger area, including Dingwall, Alness, Invergordon, Evanton, Barbaraville, Tain all the way up to the Dornoch Bridge. We are now also helping with things like transporting mother and baby on behalf of midwives, search and rescue for missing persons and community resilience patrols. We have a lot of strings to our bows.
"On the whole, it is very rewarding. We go to some calls where we literally have been the difference between the person being alive and not. Then, after that happens, when you see that person walking down the road, maybe a couple of months, we get a real sense of satisfaction from that.
"It was good to have been nominated by the community and to have reached the national final. But this isn't just about one person, it's a whole team effort. Without the team, none of this would be happening. We are now making quite a huge contribution to the area, and it is something I am pretty proud of.
"There are going to be people in this area sitting having Christmas dinner with their family, rather than visiting a grave this winter. When I think about that, all the long nights, getting woken up to go out in the freezing cold, it's all worth it."
