06/03/2026
🌍 Celebrating International Women’s Day with Fire, Police & Ambulance Services 💙🚑🚓🚒
This week, we were proud to represent Braintree Community First Responders at the joint International Women’s Day event alongside colleagues from Essex Police, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Callum (Braintree CFR) and Miriam (Witham CFR) showcased our newly purchased female CPR manikin, helping us “Bust the Myths” around resuscitation in women, an issue that urgently needs more awareness.
🔍 Why this matters:
Women are less likely to receive bystander CPR than men, only 68% of women receive CPR compared to 73% of men, according to research highlighted by the Resuscitation Council UK and BHF.
One of the biggest barriers is hesitation or discomfort around exposing the chest to apply defibrillator pads, a hesitation that can cost lives.
Our female manikin helps bridge this training gap by normalising what effective, life‑saving CPR actually involves. Every body deserves the best chance of survival.
❤️ EEAST also delivered a powerful session on heart attacks in women, focusing on atypical symptoms such as fatigue, jaw/neck pain, nausea and fainting symptoms that are still too often misunderstood or missed. It sparked brilliant, open conversations among attendees.
🤝 A huge thank you to the event organisers and emergency services partners for creating such an inspiring and inclusive day.
This International Women’s Day, we’re proud to play a small part in driving awareness, improving training diversity and helping remove the stigma and hesitation that still affects women’s survival rates,
And finally thanks to all our volunteers for not only attending events like this, but responding to emergencies on behalf of the East of England Ambulance Service, often arriving first on scene to provide life‑saving care.
Purchases like our new female CPR manikin, and other essential equipment we rely on, are only possible thanks to the generosity of local donors. If you’d like to support the work we do in our community via the East of England Ambulance Service Charity, you can do so here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Braintree-Community-First-Responders?utm_medium=FA&utm_source=CL
