Volunteers raise almost £400,000 in a year to help save lives

Date: 2 June 2026

Volunteers for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) raised almost £400,000 in the last year to help save lives in communities across the region.

Four ambulance service staff give thumbs up in a Volunteers’ Week graphic, with NHS and East of England Ambulance Service logos and charity branding on a colourful background.

To mark Volunteers' Week (1-7 June) EEAST is celebrating the hundreds of volunteers across the organisation. The Trust has 238 community first responder (CFR) groups in the east of England, each made up of dedicated volunteers who are trained to respond to life-threatening medical emergencies in their area, often arriving on scene before an ambulance crew.

The groups are supported by the East of England Ambulance Service Charity, and rely on donations and fundraising to purchase equipment such as defibrillators.

Between April 2025 and March 2026, they raised a combined £388,270 – funds which directly supported individual groups and regional schemes.

The money helped to fund:

105 patient monitoring devices, improving patient care on scene
40 defibrillators, helping to save lives in emergency situations
63 training items, including defibrillator trainers and CPR manikins, supporting community education and enhancing volunteer skills
5 Raizer chairs, each costing £4,100, which enable the safe lifting of patients who have fallen

and much more.

Over the past year, CFRs responded to over 31,000 999 calls including cardiac arrests, chest pain and falls – delivering life-saving care in those critical first few minutes. And they volunteered almost 224,000 hours of their time to help those in need.

Kate Lott, Head of Charity at EEAST, said: "The commitment our volunteer CFRs show in supporting their communities is truly inspiring. Not only are they there to provide life-saving care at the most critical moments, but they also help equip their communities with defibrillators and provide life-saving training.

"The difference they make is felt every single day by patients, families and communities across the east of England. We are incredibly grateful for everything they do."

You can support our CFRs by donating to the East of England Ambulance Service Charity Just Giving page. If you would like to make sure it goes to a particular CFR group, please let us know in the comments.