An East of England Ambulance Service Community First Responder based in Brentwood will find out today if he has won a prestigious NHS Parliamentary Award for his work in the town over the last twenty years.
Ron Ridge, who lives in the town, has given many thousands of hours of his time to cover his local community in Brentwood and attended many hundreds (if not thousands) of patients, improving their clinical outcomes.
Ron has been educating and training people in the community on how to perform CPR since 2005, after initially teaching CPR as a scout leader (he was a scout leader between 1971 and October 2017). He was inspired to promote CPR education more widely following a personal incident whereby his son (previously taught at scouts) had to resuscitate his brother.
I was honoured to support the nomination to the NHS Parliamentary Awards:
“Ron Ridge is a shining example of someone who goes above and beyond to improve the lives of so many in the Brentwood and Ongar community. Knowing how to do CPR is a basic first aid skill which has saved thousands of lives, and Ron’s own family’s experience shows it does work. I am delighted Ron’s work has been recognised by the NHS Parliamentary Awards team and he has been shortlisted for an award.”
Initially setting up as a Heartstart instructor under the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Ron ran many teaching sessions free of charge in the South Essex area. He expanded his reach through his network of contacts in his Community First Responder volunteering circle, meaning even more people could learn this life saving skill; between 2012 and 2019 his network of instructors trained 50,836 people in basic life support, all at no cost to the individual. This will have fed into improved cardiac arrest outcomes in the Essex county.
Photos: EEAST's Jonathan Needle with Alex Burghart MP and Ron Ridge, and Alex Burghart MP with Ron Ridge
