Radio heaven for Chorley's Angels as state-of-the-art equipment is ready to for its debut

A group of first aiders can’t wait for the coronavirus lockdown to lift in more ways than one.
David Forrest with Samantha Hornsby of Adactus Housing and Gail Forrest.David Forrest with Samantha Hornsby of Adactus Housing and Gail Forrest.
David Forrest with Samantha Hornsby of Adactus Housing and Gail Forrest.

For they will be able to use their new state-of-the-art, two-way radios bought as a result of a community grant.

The grant of £2,074.00 came from Chorley Community Housing.

The existing radios, while still efficient, were found not to have the range or battery life for the events covered.

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Chorley’s Angels, founded in September 2013, provide first aid event cover and community first aid training throughout the area.

All members are volunteers, tirelessly giving their time to ensure the safety of the general public.

Currently there are no events, but a lot of the volunteers work in the health service, such as paramedics and nurses, all on the front line at this worrying time.

The group also has radiographers. Volunteers work in labs, doing the all-important COVID-19 testing. Some members clean ambulances

when they have taken a COVID-19 patient into hospital.

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David Forrest PTLLS, secretary and training manager, explained: “Now that we have been established for some time, our name is getting out there and we are, more and more, being asked to cover bigger events, lasting for a longer duration.

“An example would be Adlington Carnival. We have provided first aid cover for this for several years, having a first aid post on the carnival field

and teams roving around.

“On the Saturday there is a procession through town. We have usually put six or eight first aiders at different points in the procession for a quick response should an incident occur.

“This is good practice but for the fact that the radios did not have the range to get from the first aider at the front of the procession to the one at the back.

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“We had to play ‘leap frog’ from radio to radio…not good practice, not god at all.

“Also, events like the Royal Lancashire Show, which we have provided cover for over a number of years. The duration of this event meant that our radios were flattening their batteries before we reached the end of the day. Again, not good at all.

“So, new radios were looked at, digital rather than the current analogue radios, with much longer range and better battery life.

These were identified, however the cost was quite inhibitive. We had savings for the radios but not nearly enough, hence the application to Adactus Housing’s Jigsaw Foundation.

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“The application was successful and we now have six brand new, state-of-the-art radios.

“We have trialled them, although there are currently no events for us, we did some earlier in the year, and they work a treat. At least when the events return, we will be well equipped.”

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