TRALEE Community Responders has launched a fundraiser after their defibrillator on Ashe Street was vandalised earlier this week.
In a post on their Facebook page, they stated there is some damage which will take some time to repair and it has been taken out of service.
“This is very upsetting news for us as we are trying to get back up and running,” read the post. “We have very limited money as we rely on donations and will have to spend considerable money to get us back up and running due to COVID-19.
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“This money now has to be taken to repair the damage which further delays us going back responding alongside the National Ambulance Service to Cardiac Arrest call-outs.”
They have now initiated a gofundme page (which can be accessed by clicking here) to help with the cost of repairing it or replacing the defibrillator.
Donation money will also be used to purchase the necessary medical equipment to get us back responding to call-outs for the people of Tralee.
Some of the equipment includes Defibrillator Pads, Defibrillator Batteries, Training equipment, COVID-19 cleaning supplies.
.Launching the Ballad and Folk Night fundraising concert at The Ashe Hotel back in October were, front from left; musicians Mick Kerins, Pamela O’Connor, Peter Tigge, Dave Buckley, Joe O’Connor and Willie Kelly. Back from left; Mairead O’Carroll (Tralee Community Responders), Mary Fitzgerald (Comfort For Chemo Kerry), Audrey Moran, Jimmy Murphy (TCR), Julie O’Sullivan (TCR), Dan Quirke (TCR), Eileen Whelan, Abbie O’Sullivan (TCR), Padraig Hanrahan (The Ashe Hotel), Camelia Draghici (TCR) and Mary Lynch. Photo by Dermot Crean
A LINE-UP consisting of the best of local ballad/ folk musicians and singers will entertain at a special fundraising concert this Friday night at The Ashe Hotel.
It’s a who’s who of the local scene appearing, with Spailpín, Flight of Earls, Ronnie Ryan, Sligo & Shenanigans, Joe & Pam, Dreams of Freedom, Declan McTaggart, Rising Tide and a host of more acts taking the stage.
They’re all coming together on ‘A Ballad And Folk Night’ to raise funds for Tralee Community Responders and Comfort for Chemo Kerry.
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Julie O’Sullivan, fundraiser of Tralee Community Responders said that any proceeds received will ensure that the important service which enhances the National Ambulance Service can continue.
Mary Fitzgerald of Comfort For Chemo Kerry expressed her gratitude to the musicians who will give their time on the night to help raise funds for the charity.
It’s a one-off night not to be missed, so to buy your tickets by calling into Paco on The Mall or call Mary on 087-1332179. Tickets also available on the door.
.Launching the Ballad and Folk Night fundraising concert at The Ashe Hotel were, front from left; musicians Mick Kerins, Pamela O’Connor, Peter Tigge, Dave Buckley, Joe O’Connor and Willie Kelly. Back from left; Mairead O’Carroll (Tralee Community Responders), Mary Fitzgerald (Comfort For Chemo Kerry), Audrey Moran, Jimmy Murphy (TCR), Julie O’Sullivan (TCR), Dan Quirke (TCR), Eileen Whelan, Abbie O’Sullivan (TCR), Padraig Hanrahan (The Ashe Hotel), Camelia Draghici (TCR) and Mary Lynch. Photo by Dermot Crean
A LINE-UP consisting of the best of local ballad/ folk musicians and singers will entertain at a special fundraising concert this December at The Ashe Hotel.
It’s a who’s who of the local scene appearing with Spailpín, Flight of Earls, Ronnie Ryan, Sligo & Shenanigans, Joe & Pam, Dreams of Freedom, Declan McTaggart, Rising Tide and a host of more acts taking the stage on Friday, December 6.
They’re all coming together on ‘A Ballad And Folk Night’ to raise funds for Tralee Community Responders and Comfort for Chemo Kerry.
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Julie O’Sullivan, fundraiser of Tralee Community Responders said that “any proceeds received will ensure that the important service which enhances the National Ambulance Service can continue. We are totally self-fundedand rely on fundraising events such as this to keep the show on the road.”
Mary Fitzgerald of Comfort For Chemo Kerry expressed her gratitude to the musicians who will give their time on the night to help raise funds for the charity.
Launching the Ballad and Folk Night fundraising concert at The Ashe Hotel were, front from left; Peter Tigge, Pamela O’Connor and Dave Buckley. Back from left; Julie O’Sullivan (Tralee Community Responders), Mary Lynch, Padraig Hanrahan (The Ashe Hotel), Mary Fitzgerald (Comfort For Chemo Kerry) and Jimmy Murphy (Tralee Community Responders). Photo by Dermot Crean
The main target of Comfort For Chemo Kerry is to develop a Centre of Excellence that would provide care for the cancer patients of Kerry and their families. It is hoped this will take the form of a separate purpose-built unit on the grounds of UHK.
It’s a one-off night not to be missed, so to buy your tickets, call into Paco on The Mall or call Mary on 087-1332179. Tickets also available on the door…if they’re not sold out!
.Jimmy Murphy of Tralee Community Responders accepts the new defibrillator from Caroline Sugrue of Cara Credit Union board of management. Also included, standing, from left; Siobhan Donnelly of Cara Credit Union and Carmelia Draghici of Tralee Community Responders. Kneeling is Julie O’Sullivan of Tralee Community Responders and Pa Laide, CEO of Cara Credit Union. Photo by Dermot Crean
MEMBERS of Tralee Community Responders were in attendance on Thursday morning for the presentation of a new defibrillator by Cara Credit Union. Camelia Draghici
It was presented as part of Cara Credit Union’s 50th Anniversary celebrations they have installed the defibrillator outside the door of their Tralee office in Ashe Street.
The new defibrillator is a boost after a disappointing incident where a cabinet holding the defibrillator on The Mall was vandalised in on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
The broken glass has now been replaced and that defibrillator is ready for use should it be needed.
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Pa Laide, CEO, Cara Credit Union, said; “we are delighted to gift Tralee Community Responders and our Tralee community with a defibrillator as part of our 50th Anniversary celebrations. Not only is Ashe Street a very busy street to have a defibrillator installed for public access but the credit union is a very busy office in the heart of the community.
“The defibrillator is available outside our office 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It can be accessed by phoning the Tralee Community Responders telephone number publicly displayed on the unit. When a call is made, the ambulance service are automatically alerted and will dispatch an ambulance along with a member of the Tralee Community Responders. The important message now is for the community and businesses in the town to know the locations of their nearest defibrillator unit with our Tralee office being one such location,” said Mr Laide.
Jimmy Murphy of Tralee Community Responders thanked Cara Credit Union on behalf of the group
“We are delighted to accept this kind donation from Cara Credit Union. Each unit will save lives. It is fantastic to see Tralee Town centre serviced with a public defibrillator unit. We would like to thank all the team and the members at Cara Credit Union. Without donations like this one, we would be unable to run this service.”
Tralee Community Responders was set up in 2016 and consists of 12 people from Tralee who offer 24 hours service, 7 days a week including CPR training to many individuals and groups.
In the two years since it was set up it has provided 54,000 voluntary hours and attended 458 callouts as well as providing valuable assistance to the National Ambulance Service.
Of the 458 callouts, 289 were to assist chest pain patients, 124 callouts were cases of stroke and 45 instances of cardiac arrest.
.In front; Yohan Hunt of Tralee Community Responders with Cllr Sam Locke. Back; Danny Casey of SPAR, Eileen Whelan of Paco, Kieran Ahern of SPAR, Norman Foley of SPAR and Audrey Moran at the presentation of defibrillators at Foley’s SPAR Express on the Castlemaine Road on Thursday. Photo by Dermot Crean
THE hard work of two ladies to raise funds to buy defibrillators for different parts of Tralee came to fruition this week, with the presentation of two to Tralee Community Responders and Foley’s SPAR Express.
Audrey Moran and Paco Tralee’s Eileen Whelan held a fashiob/coffee morning fundraiser at Paco in March and raised enough to buy three defibrillators with another one pledged for August.
The event was inspired by Audrey’s sister, Therese O’Brien’s experience after she almost died in the town centre in early January.
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Therese felt unwell outside Lloyd’s Pharmacy in Ashe Street and her life was saved thanks to a defibrillator in the pharmacy, the skill of staff, local doctor Karen Soffe and medics who arrived quickly on the scene.
The funds raised bought three Radon AED defibrillators costing €1,400 each and two were presented at Foley’s SPAR Express on the Castlemaine Road on Thursday.
One will be placed at the SPAR (which paid for half of one defibrillator), one was presented to the Tralee Community Responders and the other will be placed at a suitable location in town in the coming weeks.
Norman Foley of Foley’s SPAR Express said; “Therese works here so we got involved and since we open from 6.30am to 10.30pm, it was a good idea to have one here as there’s not many placed on this side of town. Also, a friend of mine was down in Tralee a few years ago and needed the use of a defibrillator, so I know how important it is.”
Audrey Moran said: “We want to thank everyone for their kind donations, especially Borg Warner, who donated €500, to Norman Foley, to the Tralee Community Responders and the staff of Lloyds Pharmacy who were so good to Therese.”
The staff of SPAR will be trained by Tralee Community Responders in how to properly use the defibrillators.
.Jimmy Murphy from Tralee with one of the little girls in the Tír na nÓg Orphanage.
A MEMBER of Tralee Community Responders put his skills to good use last week when he came to the aid of a teenager hit by a motorbike in Tanzania last week.
Jimmy Murphy and his wife Maureen are over in the African country where they visited the Tír na nÓg Orphanage, run by Tralee woman Louise Quill.
Maureen is heavily involved in the upkeep and fundraising for the orphanage and they were spending five days there.
Louise contacted us to tell us what happened last week. She takes up the story below…
“After returning home from town last week with some of the children, one of our 14 year old girls was struck by a drunk driver on a motorcycle, who then sped off. Jimmy, who is a member of the Tralee Community Responders, acted in a heroic and selfless manner coming immediately to the child’s aid.
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“He put her into the recovery position and waited as a passing neighbourhood friend helped the child into the back of his car and rushed her to hospital. However as it was late in the evening there were no doctors available in the hospital and the child was returned home to us, much to our horror.
She had sustained serious facial injuries, had lost two teeth and her arms, elbows and ankles were destroyed with open wounds.
Jimmy rushed off to the pharmacy to organise a first aid bag and proceeded to bandage and clean the wounds.
He did this for the next few days until she had recovered. I really don’t know what we would have done if Jimmy wasn’t on hand that day, especially since the child was turned away from the hospital.
It was very traumatic for all the children and staff members to witness this child in such pain. I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to Jimmy Murphy and thank him for all his help.”
.Sean Horgan (third from right) of Tralee Community Responders receiving the debrillator from Frank Shaw (right) of Bank of Ireland Castle Street with Hugh Gleeson (left) and Bank of Ireland staff.
TRALEE Community Responders has hailed their public meeting last Thursday as a success and revealed that two defibrillators have already been donated to the group in recent weeks.
The equipment was donated by Bank of Ireland and from the Tralee branch of the Irish Red Cross.
The Responders need four defibrillators to cover the Tralee area so they are delighted that they are halfway to that total so soon.
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The meeting at the Brandon Hotel discussed how the scheme would see local, kitted and trained volunteers respond to 999 calls in the Tralee area for chest pain, stroke, choking and cardiac arrest in tandem with the ambulance service.
Approximately 25 people attended on the night and many others have made contact to say they would very much like to join the scheme. John Fitzgerald (CFR Ireland) and Des Kelly (CFR Coordinator – National Ambulance Service) also attended the meeting and explained how the scheme will run, answering a callout, finances and also opened up the floor to questions from interested persons.
Members of the Ardfert & District Community First Responders and the Killarney Cardiac Response Unit also attended to show their support for the scheme and also answer questions from their experience which was greatly received.
Martin Dunne, Director of the National Ambulance Service also took to Facebook to show his support to the Tralee Community Responder scheme, which was a welcome boost to members.
The scheme will now build a team to carry out work behind the scenes including training and fundraising. Due to the close proximity to Christmas, it is expected that this will happen in January 2016.
To keep up to date with the work of the group, see www.traleeresponders.com – like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
A PUBLIC meeting regarding the setup of Tralee Community Responders has been planned for Thursday, November 26 at 7.30pm in The Brandon Hotel.
The national representative body for Community First Responders, CFR Ireland, as well as the National Ambulance Service’s CFR Coordinator will attend and speak at the meeting.
The topics will explore what a CFR scheme is, what they do and why one is needed in Tralee among other subjects.
The public will also be given an opportunity to ask questions on the scheme.
The organisers are asking that if any other interested persons who may like to be a part of a lifesaving scheme for the town of Tralee, please tell them about the meeting.
For anybody who is unavailable on this date, please make contact and organisers will provide the information you require.
.Tralee will benefit from a new ‘Community Responders Scheme’.
TRALEE is to get a new ‘Community Responder Scheme’ (CFR) to assist the Ambulance Service in various life threatening emergencies.
The scheme will be made up entirely of volunteers living or working within the coverage area who will be on a roster system. The scheme will be reliant entirely on public support and business sponsorship and it is estimated that the scheme will require €8,000 in order to ‘go live’.
The scheme will be linked to, and under the control of, the National Ambulance Service, who are supporting
the scheme for Tralee.
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Emergency calls for the scheme will be sent by ambulance control to the pagers of the responders on call. The scheme will attend calls for choking, stroke, chest pain and cardiac arrest within the 6km radius which is centered at the railway flyover on the Tralee Bypass.
The scheme will be managed on a local level by Scheme Coordinator Sean Horgan who also set-up and
continues to run the Ardfert & District Community First Responders which went live on 23rd February this year
and had attended 27 emergency calls as at 9th October.
“We are lucky enough in Tralee to have an ambulance station but the crews have a very large coverage area spanning from Kerry Head to Knocknagoshel. So what we intend to do, like the 120+ CFR schemes nationwide, is assist the National Ambulance Service where possible to ensure that assistance is given to persons choking, experiencing chest pain, a stroke or cardiac arrest,” said Sean Horgan, commenting on the setting up of the group.
Businesses and locals are asked to pledge their support to the CFR scheme in order to get it up and running.
“CFR schemes are worth their weight in gold and do tremendous work around Ireland. In times where ambulances are on other calls, you can still rest assured that a trained Community Responder is on their way to you. Taking Ardfert as an example, the members have assisted in many calls since going live and have genuinely made a difference and it would be great to follow suit in Tralee like other schemes in Kerry have – such as Ardfert, Killarney, Ballybunion, Sneem, Beale, Asdee and more,” Sean continued.
The responders will be local persons living or available within the 6km coverage area when on call. They will carry with them a kit bag containing all necessary supplies and a defibrillator when on call.
Full training will be provided and the only other requirements are that you are over 18, have a full driving licence, can pass a Garda vetting check, have access to an insured vehicle when on call and are not on call for any other
organisation whilst on call for the Tralee Community Responders.
The Tralee Community Responders website can be found HERE . A Facebook page for the group can be found HERE as well.
You will also be able to get in touch by e-mailing traleeresponders@gmail.com.
A public meeting will be held in a few weeks for those persons interested in getting involved.
