A DECOMMISSIONED four-wheel drive Ambulance will take on a new lease of life as part of a volunteer lifeguard unit in West Africa.
Herefordshire's St John Ambulance has donated the vehicle to 'Beachwatch' lifeguards at Fajara beach in the Gambia.
The organisation was set up by Paul and Val Brooker after they witnessed an incident in which eight young children drowned in one day.
Now known as the 'Lifeguard Association of the Gambia' Beachwatch lifeguards are now fully recognised by the Gambian authorities as the official body for safety in Gambian waters.
St John Ambulance Commissioner, Haydn Ebbs said: "When I first saw the lifeguards they were operating with a clothes line and garden hose reel winder and their floats were empty plastic gallon containers.
"There was no means of getting people to hospital other than by taxi (quite usual in the Gambia) and hospital was 30 minutes away with limited facilities."
St John Ambulance has also donated decommissioned resuscitators and radio communications equipment.
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