Ambulance volunteer wins heroes award
A WELSH Ambulance Service volunteer has won an award for his contribution to his community.
Volunteer Community First Responder (CFR) Gareth Goff has won an Outstanding Contribution Award at Friday night’s Bridgend Unsung Heroes Awards 2024.
The event, which was hosted by the Bridgend Association of Voluntary Organisations (BAVO), recognised and honoured outstanding people and organisations that have made a significant contribution to their community during the year.
Gareth, who has a decade of volunteering experience with the ambulance service, said: “I am not one to seek the limelight and generally prefer to work quietly in the background, but it’s humbling to be nominated.
“To win means Team WAST wins.
“This award goes to all the volunteers that work for the Trust.”
The 54-year-old who has 30 years’ service in the NHS, balances his volunteering role with his job as a radiographer at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.
He said: “Stephen Roberts, a retired CFR trainer inspired me into the role.
“I had on occasions known retrospectively of patients in my local vicinity having cardiac arrests with poor outcomes and thought that I could have started the ‘chain of survival’ earlier to help improve their chances.
“I also enjoy helping people in general where I can.
“When you turn up, you can often see the relief on a patient or relative’s face.
“Volunteering is very rewarding and it’s a privilege to help someone in their darkest hours to bring them comfort and support where you can.”
Community First Responders are volunteers who are trained and dispatched by ambulance services in their local communities to provide essential lifesaving treatment and support in those crucial minutes before the ambulance crew arrives.
Nik Dart, a Volunteering Support Officer and CFR at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “I nominated Gareth for a BAVO Unsung Heroes Award as he embodies Trust behaviours and the Trust ethos, to support, to serve, to save.
“While working full-time as a radiographer for the NHS alongside family life, he books on as an available CFR most evenings and weekends, offering community resilience within the Pyle and surrounding area.
“In his CFR role, Gareth attends high priority patients, and is often the first on scene providing lifesaving interventions and support.
“Over the past ten years, we have members of the community who have experienced the best possible outcome due to Gareth’s timely intervention and dedication to the Trust.”
The Bridgend Unsung Heroes Awards 2024 took place at the Heronston Hotel, where Gareth was joined by wife Sarah Goff and colleague Nik Dart.
If you would like to join Gareth and the Volunteer Community First Responder Team, click here.
Editor’s Notes
For more information, please email Communications Specialist Beth.Eales@wales.nhs.uk