The OPERATION SHOCK campaign reached its goal this week, when the final four portable defibrillators were presented to the commanders of the Bombeiros Stations at Vila do Bispo, Monchique, Loulé and Vila Real de Santo António.
afpop’s CEO Michael Reeve and the association's president, Chris Ireland, presented the brand new equipment to the commanders at a short ceremony at the Portimão Bombeiros station, bringing an end to an ambitious campaign that has seen a portable defibrillator donated to each of the seventeen Bombeiros Commands in the Algarve region.
Commander Richard Marquês of the Portimão Bombeiros station - who coordinated all the presentations on behalf of the Federação dos Bombeiros do Algarve - was highly delighted with the efforts made,
“We are delighted that the OPERATION SHOCK campaign has reached its target in only five months and has provided this life-saving equipment across the Algarve. We are very grateful to afpop for this initiative and congratulate the association on such a fine project - our thanks go to all of those who have contributed to this excellent campaign.”
Many people and organisations helped to make OPERATION SHOCK a success, including - for this final presentation - the Netherlands Club of the Algarve, the Combined Lodges of Portugal, Mungo’s Golf Society, the friends of ‘300 Birthday’ event and the children of Vale Verde International School who held a sponsored ‘Read-a-thon’ and other fundraising activities to raise sufficient donations to pay for the defibrilator unit for the Vila do Bispo Bombeiros.
This fundraising initiative, devised by foreign residents’ association afpop, shows support for the Federation of Bombeiros of the Algarve and is a way of thanking an organisation that responds to the needs of people - whether tehy are Portuguese, foreign residents or just on holiday.
The campaign was created by afpop to mark its 30 years of service to its Members by acknowledging the work done by the Bombeiros emergency service men and women, mostly volunteers, who offer their help in times of distress.
Thank you!
afpop and the Bombeiros would like to sincerely thank all of those who have supported, donated or promoted this campaign and helped to provide this potentially life-saving equipment across the Algarve.
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.
