Sainsbury’s to support community responders

The charity are alerted of an appropriate incident by ambulance control and mobilise to get to the scene as soon as possible.

They are often able to reach the scene before the ambulance and will give vital lifesaving treatment and prevent the patient from getting any worse.

They currently have 15 Responders in Horsham, Mannings Heath, Warnham and Slinfold with two more in training. They will be the new Local Charity for the Horsham store.

To celebrate the announcement, a launch day will be taking place at the Horsham Store at the beginning of August. Representatives from Horsham Community Responders will be on hand to greet customers throughout the day.

The retailer’s Local Charity scheme is now in its sixth year and gives customers the chance to vote for their favourite local charity to be considered to receive a year’s worth of support from their Sainsbury’s store.

The scheme has raised over £6 million to support local charities since 2009.

The Horsham Store, situated in Worthing Road, has had great success in supporting previous local charities and last year raised £11,600 for Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance.

The charity will be using the money to maintain their night flying and the availability of their Doctor’s on board.

Customers had a huge say in this year’s announcement and voted in-store and online between May 28 and June 8.

The store colleagues then decided that Horsham Community Responders were the best charity for them to work with to make a real difference.

Marc Harrold from Horsham Community Responders said: “We know the success that the Local Charity partnership has bought to many charities in Horsham, so when we received the news, we were thrilled.

“We hope the partnership will help raise awareness of our cause to the store’s customers and will help us develop the important service we provide to the community”.

Sainsbury’s Horsham Store Manager, Derek Boarer said: “We’ve had a great response from our customers this year, both through in-store and online votes.

“We’re delighted to have chosen a charity which touched many of our colleagues’ hearts. We will now be working closely with the charity to ensure they really benefit from being our Local Charity for the next 12 months”.

Report and picture contributed by Sainsbury’s Horsham.