Sainsbury’s and Horsham Rotary lottery a success

The lottery was run in aid of Horsham Community Responders and has raised £1116.00 for the local volunteer group.

Horsham Community Responders have been Horsham Sainsbury’s charity of the year for the past year as well as being Horsham Rotary Club President Dave Smith’s charity of the year.

The £1116.00 will be added to further by Sainsbury’s fundraising activities during the past year which once calculated will be a considerable donation to Horsham Community Responders.

There will also be further funds to come from Horsham Rotary Club’s President’s charity activities throughout the past twelve months.

The winner of the first prize, a Sainsbury trolley dash, was Mr Andrew Macauley from Cowfold, the second prize of a 32 inch colour TV was won by Jill Horn of Slinfold, a bottle of champagne went to Cathy Barnes from Horsham and a giant bunny rabbit was won by Tamzin Hindle, also from Horsham.

Responder Team Leader Marc Harrold said “I am delighted with the amount that has been raised by Sainsbury’s and Horsham Rotary and the funds will be used to train and equip a new team member who will respond within the Horsham area2.

The Horsham Community Responders scheme was set up in 2007 and they now have thirteen trained responders in the Horsham, Mannings Heath, and Warnham areas, with another three currently going through training. Responders are a trained and totally voluntary unpaid group that work closely with the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb).

The team run and instigate their own funding through various fundraising ventures and monies such as that raised through this Lottery are vital to the schemes operation and growth.

The aim of the group is to eventually provide a service 24 hours a day 365 days of the year.

On duty responders are alerted of an incident by the ambulance control centre at the same time as they are dispatching an ambulance.

The responders will often get to the scene before the ambulance where they will give vital lifesaving treatment and prevent the patient from getting any worse.

Once the ambulance arrives they remain on site working with the ambulance crew until they are stood down.

More information on Horsham Community Responders and how to help them can be found at www.horshamresponders.org

Pictured: Sainsbury Store manager Derek Boarer, PR Ambassador, Jane Etheridge, Horsham Rotary President Dave Smith and Ali Harmer of Horsham community Responders

Report and picture contributed by Dave Smith, President, The Rotary Club of Horsham.