Fareham Community First Responders

02/10/2026

Good evening, Fareham!

Happy Friday - hope you’ve all had a fantastic week and have got some good plans lined up for the weekend. Although it's getting a little bit chilly, at least the sun is still out this evening! ☀️

Tom is back out on SF261 tonight, keeping an eye over our patch and ready to attend to 999 calls alongside our colleagues at the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. Give him a wave if you spot the car passing by!

​Have a great evening, look after yourselves, and remember - if you ever need emergency help, don’t hesitate to dial 999.

​

29/09/2026

Good afternoon everyone,

Slightly longer post for you all today but we have put it together to include some important information.

You’ve probably walked past these yellow cabinets dozens of times, but in a sudden cardiac arrest, knowing where they are and how simple they are to use can genuinely save a life.

These photos show three public access defibs:
(We will be doing more posts covering our patch, these are just a few in Stubbington)

On the wall of Stubbington Green Dental Practice in the village. On the wall at Crofton Community Centre. Down at The Wheelhouse in Salterns car park in Hill Head.

A lot of people worry about the keypad on the front. If someone is unconscious and not breathing normally, call 999 straight away. The emergency call taker will ask for your location and after some short questions, will read the unlock code out to you. (Providing instructions on how to get to your nearest defib if you are unsure - please note the phone MUST stay with the patient whilst someone fetches the defibrillator, if you are alone with someone in cardiac arrest you should not leave them and should instead do exactly as instructed by the call taker)

The biggest thing to remember is that you don’t need any training to use one. Once you open the case and turn it on, the machine talks you through every single step out loud. It assesses the person's heart rhythm automatically and will only ever deliver a shock if the patient actually needs one—you CANNOT accidentally shock someone or make things worse - Doing something is always better than doing nothing.

Next time you’re popping to the shops, heading to the bottle bank or park, or walking the dog along the seafront, take a second to note where these are. Having that picture in your head beforehand saves precious minutes when it matters most.

As always, Stay safe, look out for one another, and always call 999 first in an emergency!

- Fareham Community First Responders

#999
South Central Ambulance Charity
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
British Heart Foundation

15/09/2026

Good evening, Fareham! ☀️

The weather definitely delivered for us today - what a lovely, sunny Tuesday evening to wrap up the day. We hope you’re all having a great week so far and getting to enjoy a bit of the sunshine.

Tonight, Tom is booked on in SF261, covering our patch and ready to respond to 999 emergency calls alongside South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust crews.

Enjoy the rest of your evening, take care of yourselves, and remember—if you ever face a medical emergency, always dial 999 straight away.

South Central Ambulance Charity

12/09/2026

Good evening, everyone! Hope you’re all having a great weekend.

​With the nights starting to draw in and it getting darker (and wetter) much earlier, finding addresses in a hurry gets that little bit trickier for us.

​When you dial 999, every second matters. Our CFRs and South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust crews want to get to you as quickly as possible, but hunting for unlit, hidden, or missing house numbers from the car can cost vital time.

​A few small things that genuinely make a massive difference if you ever need to call us out:

• ​Turn an outside light on –
Flicking on your porch or driveway light (if you have one) makes your house stand out from the road.

• ​Check your door numbers –
Take a look from the street tonight. Are your numbers easy to spot, or are they hiding behind overgrown bushes or hanging baskets?
​
• Secure family pets –
Even the friendliest dogs (and cats) can get stressed, protective, or simply underfoot when unfamiliar people rush in with response bags. Popping them in a separate room keeps everyone safe and focused on the patient.

​A quick check outside tonight could make all the difference in an emergency.

​Stay safe, look out for each other, and have a lovely evening!

We're not big fans of using AI in our posts but have included this image to show the stark contrast

​ South Central Ambulance Charity

07/09/2026

Good evening, everyone!

​We hope you're all keeping well on this "sunny, blue sky" (one can dream!) Monday evening.

​We have Caitlin and Tom logged in on SF731. They will be covering several of our areas, including Whiteley, Titchfield, Stubbington, Fareham, and Portchester from this evening into the night, responding to 999 calls alongside the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

​Drive carefully, stay safe, and remember: in a medical emergency, always dial 999 and ask for the ambulance service. The call taker will guide you through everything you need to do, starting with two vital questions:

• ​Is the patient breathing?

• ​Are they awake?

​

05/09/2026

Good Afternoon, Fareham.

We've had a great day at Port Solent 999 day, you may have seen us nestled next to South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, amongst several other services including the RNLI, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary.

Well done to everyone who had a go at CPR with our volunteers. You were all amazing and have shown you'll be able to help if the time ever comes!

Thank you to each and every one of you who came along and especially to those who left a donation, as a charity-funded scheme this means a huge amount to us.

Have a lovely rest of your weekend!

​

02/09/2026

Good evening, Fareham!

We hope you had a great summer and that you’re doing well.

It’s been a little sparse here recently, but our first responders have been as busy as ever. While the social feed took a summer break, our team responded to dozens of 999 calls across Whiteley, Stubbington, Fareham, Portchester, and the surrounding areas.

Whilst the sunny weather is winding down and the school run is back, we’re still here on duty with the South Central Ambulance Service, ready for whenever we’re needed by our community.

Looking ahead, expect to see a lot more of us popping up on your feed with regular updates, community news, and lifesaving tips.

It’s great to be back! 🚑✨

09/07/2026

Another scorcher of a day, but we have 2 CFR'S logged on this evening. Rich and Tom are crewed together in SF731 and looking after 9️⃣9️⃣9️⃣ response across the Fareham, Gosport and Portsmouth areas.

Stay safe and be cool! 🧊 ❄️

Fareham Community First Responders

07/07/2026

FAREHAM COMMUNITY FIRST RESPONDERS CROWDFUNDING

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/QWad81El?utm_campaign=sharemodal&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=shortlink

Please take a minute to help us...

Who are we and what do we do?

We are a team of South Central Ambulance Service volunteer responders who attend 999/111 Calls alongside regular ambulances. Community First Responders (CFR's) are trained volunteers who live and work in their local communities and can be sent to life-threatening emergencies, often arriving in the crucial first minutes before an ambulance crew.

We aim to be first on scene when you need us most as we are generally dispatched to incidents in our local area and may be closer than a regular Ambulance.

Another function we carry out as CFR’s is to deliver basic life support and trauma and first aid courses to local community groups, organisations and businesses.

We have provided this training to Scout and Cub groups, sports clubs, community interest groups, schools, colleges, and cadet organisations throughout 2025 and so far in 2026. We provide full resources, practical training aids and in-depth theoretical knowledge to ensure each learner, regardless of age or background finishes the course empowered with the confidence and skills to be an effective first aider in the event of an emergency incident they may find themselves a part of.



What equipment do we carry?

Our Response Car is equipped with a wide range of equipment that we may need to support patients until an Ambulance can arrive. We carry equipment such as; Oxygen, Entonox (Gas and air), a Defibrillator, observation equipment (to measure pulse rate, blood pressure, temperature, blood glucose levels and oxygen saturations), dressings and bandages, catastrophic haemorrhage control equipment and an Emergency lifting apparatus.

What training do we have?

All of our volunteers complete comprehensive in-house training with South Central Ambulance and attend core skills refreshers to ensure that we are up to date with all the life-saving skills that are required!

How do we get tasked to 999 calls?

We are dispatched by the Ambulance Service Control Room as an additional resource alongside our regular ambulances. This means that if you call 999/111, even though we are dispatched at the same time, one of our responders may arrive before a regular ambulance.

You may see us driving in one of our Marked Dacia response units, these vehicles allow us to carry all of our equipment and is brightly marked with orange and green livery and South Central Ambulance Charity branding.

How can I help?

There are a number of ways that you can get involved, but the most valuable resource to us as a charity is through donations to the South Central Ambulance Charity.

https://scascharity.org.uk/

This enables us to purchase new equipment, train more volunteers and to provide support and welfare to our operational staff!

Thanks to money raised for the South Central Ambulance Charity, 179 new community first responders (CFRs) were recruited last year.

Your fundraising helps:

👉 Recruit and train new volunteers

👉 Equip CFRs with essential life-saving kit

👉 Strengthen emergency response in towns, villages and rural areas

Every new CFR means faster help, closer to home, when it’s needed most.

In 2025, volunteer CFR's from the Fareham team provided an amazing 2,340:22 hours of operational response to 999 emergencies across our area.

This does not include the hundreds of additional hours we've devoted to delivering courses, school visits and public events.

All this can only be made possible through the generosity of all of you, making valuable donations through here to South Central Ambulance Charity to keep us kitted up and on the road.

Please help us, help you!

Thank you.

Fareham Community First Responders

Supporting Your Local Ambulance Service With your help we are able to provide additional support to our ambulance crews and volunteers, fund innovative new projects and work alongside our operational teams to really enhance the patient care South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is able to provide.....

05/07/2026

Good evening Fareham,

Yesterday, the team joined our colleagues from South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust for the HMS Collingwood Open Day.

This was a very busy event (despite how the pictures appear!) and we had a lovely time meeting everyone and spending time telling people about what we do.

There was a chance to have look around various ambulance vehicles and have a go at practicing the vital skill of CPR!

We hope everyone had a good day and enjoyed the weather!

If you'd like to know more about who we are and what we do please get in touch.

Fareham Community First Responders 🚑