Volunteers proud to be at Brighton Pride

Over 120 volunteers from St John Ambulance will be on hand to provide first aid and medical care to revellers at Brighton Pride celebrations next week (Fri 31 July to Sunday 2 August 2009).

The charity, which has been chosen as the sole source of medical support for the event will deploy a team comprising of:

• over 100 first aiders
• 5 doctors
• 6 nurses
• 5 paramedics
• 6 ambulances

Typically the St John team can treat in excess of 400 causalities at Brighton Pride with injuries which can be as simple as a graze or bruise or as serious as a cardiac arrest, and are working with the organisers to put out messages relating to festival safety to hopefully reduce this figure.

Assistant Commissioner Operations for St John Sussex, Dan May is looking forward to the event. ‘This is the seventeenth year that we have provided medical support at Brighton Pride and the event is a highlight on our calendar each year. The coordination of all the volunteers and equipment for the weekend takes some nine months of planning so it is certainly the biggest event we are involved in. We will have members of the team along the parade route, in Preston Park and also at the St James Street celebrations so the scale of the whole thing is huge.’

Dan continued: ‘By having St John Ambulance personnel and ambulances at Pride it relieves the pressure on the NHS ambulance service allowing them to continue responding to non Pride related calls as they usually would without having to manage the extra strain on resources which inevitably comes with having such a large and popular event in the area.

'We hope that by having not only first aiders on site but also healthcare professionals such as nurses, doctors and paramedics we can reduce for the need for people to be taken to hospital at all.’

Pride CEO Lesley Burn said: ‘We have enjoyed a very successful working relationship with St John Ambulance for many years now and know that we can rely on them in the lead up to the event and over the course of the Pride weekend to provide professional medical advice and treatment where needed.

'We work closely with them to ensure this is an event which can be enjoyed by thousands of people in a safe and fun environment and their contribution to making Pride run smoothly is invaluable.’

St John Ambulance will also be taking part in the parade at Pride for the very first time this year when one of their ambulances will join with other organisations in the precession through the city.