After fleeing Liberia and struggling for years, Robert is finally building a new life in the UK. As we celebrate Refugee Week, here is his story.
I had to leave Liberia in 2005 because it wasn’t safe for me, and I sought asylum in the UK. At first my asylum claim was refused, and for a long time I had nothing and really struggled to get by.
Well, not everyone gets to go – but each year we send a small team of first aiders to provide cover at the big racing event. Here’s what team leader Linda Izquierdo-Ross had to say about this year’s trip:
I suppose most people imagine being a first aider at the Grand Prix involves standing around looking at the nice cars and occasionally waving at Lewis Hamilton as he drives past.
New mother Ruth Davies was impressed when she took a Red Cross baby and child first aid course. And only a few months later, she realised just how useful her training had been. Here’s her story:
My son Jimmy recently fell over and hit his head while he was eating a piece of bread. He started to cry immediately but, as I picked him up, he sucked in. I thought he was holding his breath, which he does quite often, so blew on his face gently, which usually makes him start breathing again. However, this time he didn’t.
They’re both deadly, but would you know which was which in an emergency?
Of all the medical conditions, cardiac arrest and heart attacks are perhaps the best known and least understood. Here’s the problem:
1. Both can quickly prove fatal.
2. They each require radically different treatments.
3. Most people don’t know the difference between them.
To help explain things, let’s use a simple car analogy. Imagine you’re driving a car and the fuel pipe feeding petrol to the engine becomes blocked, leading the vehicle to splutter and not work properly. This, basically, is a heart attack. More
Given an impending change to British law, Joe Mulligan, our head of first aid education, argues that first aid training in the workplace is more important than ever.
The times are indeed a-changin’. Traditionally, any organisation wanting to provide first aid training in workplaces has had to first get approval from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).
But it now looks likely that, in October, the government will rubber-stamp a new law that means employers will be free to choose any first aid training company they like. More
When firefighter Terry Hand attended a horrific – and fatal – car crash last month, he knew he could count on the Red Cross to support local distressed residents. Here’s his story.
My team was called out to a residential area in Salford after a stolen car struck a garden wall at speed and burst into flames, hurling debris across a suburban street and sparking a series of fires.
Volunteers respond to help French students
Zut alors! Red Cross volunteers are used to responding to all kinds of crises – but even they raised their eyebrows last night after being called out to help two coachloads of French students hit by a virulent stomach bug.
Yesterday evening, around 90 exchange students from France rolled up at Warwick Hospital in two coaches. Around a third of them were quite poorly – four had to be admitted to the children’s ward – and the rest camped out on the coaches.
Given the infectious nature of the mass ailment, hospital staff sensibly opted to house les etudiants in a secluded area away from the main hospital building.
They also called the Red Cross, who immediately raced out to set up 90 camp-beds and provide loads of blankets, inflatable pillows and hygiene packs. Four volunteers with enhanced first aid training also went along to help the hospital staff.
London emergency response volunteer Cristina Dalton
Not only does Cristina Dalton get a huge amount of satisfaction from being a Red Cross volunteer – it’s also helped land her a good job.
Cristina, a London-based emergency response volunteer for almost three years, is by now an old hand at helping people in crisis. Many is the time she’s turned out following a fire or power cut, to help set up a rest centre or offer medical support.
So when Kingston Council recently advertised for an emergency planning officer, she literally ticked every box and seemed an obvious choice.