The OPERATION SHOCK campaign took another step towards its goal this week, when the next six portable defibrillators were presented to the Commandants of Silves, Albufeira, Messines, Faro (x2) and Alcoutim stations.
afpop’s CEO Michael Reeve and council president Chris Ireland, presented the equipment to the commanders at a short ceremony at the Portimão Bombeiros station. So far defibrillators have now been supplied to 13 of the 17 Bombeiros stations in the region.
Commander Richard Marques of the Portimão station who is coordinating the presentations on behalf of the Federação dos Bombeiros do Algarve (FBA) said “We are delighted and surprised at how quickly the OPERATION SHOCK campaign is achieving the goal of providing this life saving equipment across the Algarve. We are very grateful to afpop for this initiative and for the support of the foreign residents in the Algarve.” The Commandant of Albufeira António Coelho and Messines Joaquim Gonçalves agreed and stated how important this new equipment was for their stations, a sentiment echoed by their colleagues at the presentation.
The campaign was delighted to receive a donation of over 3,300 euros from the Association Alerta de Incêndio Florestal Their President Debby Burton (pictured with husband Andy) attended the ceremony with supporters from their Association to witness the presentation of the equipment
This fund raising initiative by Foreign Residents’ Association ‘afpop’, in conjunction with the Federation of Bombeiros of the Algarve, has the aim of providing a mobile defibrillator unit for each of the 17 Bombeiros commands in the Algarve. The target amount is €20,000, which will enable afpop to purchase and supply the equipment to the Bombeiros.
Donations to the OPERATION SHOCK campaign can be in any amount, but please contact the afpop office to ask for the details of the account. Please visit the website www.afpop.com and click on the OPERATION SHOCK image. All donations are welcome and the equipment will be supplied to each station as soon as there is sufficient in the account to purchase the next unit.
Please remember, the next life that could be saved might be yours!
Important information: The reason for the ‘OPERATION SHOCK’ campaign is that only the yellow INEM Emergency ambulances are fully equipped with defibrillator equipment as standard. The red Bombeiros ambulances do not come equipped with them and this is of course a problem if they are called to a sick or injured person, who then goes into cardiac arrest either at the scene or on the way to hospital, as manual CPR is not easy to maintain for any length of time and is especially difficult in a moving ambulance.
