Today our Holiday Hero is Chad Saunders, Community First Responder from the Shepshed CFR group. Many of our volunteers like Chad have been out and about across the festive period helping those in the community who are in need.
Chad started volunteering for EMAS in 2023.
“Alongside volunteering, I work on the Loughborough University campus for a golf club company called PING as a Research and Test Engineer. My role mainly involves developing 3D motion capture technologies to model the golf swing, understand how people interact with equipment, and drive innovation to design better golf clubs. “Growing up I did not have an interest in working in healthcare but when I was younger my friend's father had a cardiac arrest and collapsed at a family BBQ. The neighbour was a CFR and quickly came to the rescue and now the father is fully recovered and healthy. Arguably the CFR saved his life and the positive impact that one person had on my friend and the wider community has always stuck with me. “I have moved around the UK multiple times for university and work and until recently I never felt settled enough to become part of the local community. Now that I feel settled and have started volunteering I am really enjoying it.
“Being trusted by patients to help them in their hour of need is a real privilege and something I find very rewarding. One thing I didn't think about before volunteering was how much you would interact with a wide variety of cultures, ages, and backgrounds within the local community and be able to communicate, relate, and help where I can.”
Could you make a difference to your community like Chad? Why not visit the EMAS website to find out more about how you can become a volunteer. Volunteers :: East Midlands Ambulance Service (emas.nhs.uk)