MAYOR of Presteigne and Norton, Cllr Colin Kirkby MBE has presented the Presteigne firemen with a new defibrillator. In May Colin walked 192 miles from Presteigne to Plymouth and raised a final total of £1041.50, with £100 being donated from Presteigne SPAR from their hamper raffle. In addition they have now installed a collection box at the counter and will donate 25% of the money raised from the plastic bag charge to the First Responders. The defibrillator cost £900 and the balance will be put into a new fund set up at the fire station to buy equipment they need for the First Responder service they provide. Last year they attended over 150 emergency calls. The manpower and vehicle for this service is provided by the fire service for the ambulance service, which in turn is responsible for providing the medical equipment and training. Earlier in the year the firemen had been told by the ambulance service that they would need a new defibrillator but they had no money to pay for it. So the firemen decided to come to the town council for help in raising the money. Cllr Kirkby said "Having been a retained fireman in Presteigne from 1982 to 1992 their plea to the town council for help to raise money for a defibrillator was close to my heart, so I decided to use my planned retirement walk to good use and endeavour to raise the money for them. I'm very grateful for all the townspeople who kindly donated". David Lloyd, officer-in-charge at Presteigne said "Many thanks to Cllr Kirkby, SPAR and all the local people who donated to the fund and to the continued fund-raising by the local population for the co-responder Unit".
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