Step up to save lives

A fundraising drive has been launched to buy lifesaving equipment for volunteer first-aiders.

The Pet Shop Girls wants to raise around £6,000 for Ollerton’s Community First Responder service, which works alongside the ambulance service, attending emergency calls.

The responder service was set up by Mr Paul Prehn (38) of The Markhams, Ollerton, three years ago and at present he is the only volunteer working in the Ollerton area.

He is an emergency care assistant with the ambulance service and heard about the scheme through his manager.

He covers a radius of eight minutes from his home and his most common cases are chest pains, shortness of breath and heart attacks.”

He volunteers as a first responder four times a week and often goes on call after an eight-hour shift at work.

It costs around £1,500 to buy the equipment needed to be a first responder, which Mr Prehn had to raise himself.

He now wants to get more volunteers involved so they can provide a better service.

Mr Prehn said: “I am hoping to find four more people so we can get round-the-clock coverage and set up a rota.”

The Pet Shop Girls formed in Ollerton in 1987 with the original purpose of helping to raise money for the Sir John Eastwood Hospice, Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Over the years they have raised thousands of pounds for various community projects.

They have already bought a stethoscope and a pulse oximeter, which measures oxygen in a patient’s blood, for Mr Prehn but they plan to raise more money for potential new volunteers.

A Pet Shop Girls founder, Mrs June Yates, of Forest Road, Ollerton, said they would raise the money through their weekly line-dancing classes at Boughton Social Club and St Paul’s Church Hall, Worksop, an evening with a medium, and raffles.