Civil Emergency Service Volunteers in Action

By Claire Lamb

The CESV have been putting all their skills into action over the past couple of weeks!

We put our own training to good use at the Girne Amphitheatre when we were asked to help a lady who had fallen down the steps and injured her ankle. It also proved the point that, although we train in a nice wide open space that is well lit an accident can occur anywhere. When we got to the patient we had to contend with awkward small spaces, crowd control and lack of light! Still, our training had prepared us for any eventuality and we soon had the casualty’s ankle strapped up and off on a portable chair to await the arrival of the ambulance. Luckily the lady in question had not broken her ankle but had badly sprained it – still very painful.

Just as we were having thoughts of going home to bed we were called to a young man who had had stomach cramps all night and had collapsed with the pain. We suspected it may be dehydration so made him as comfortable as possible and gave sips of water until the next ambulance arrived. Hopefully the young gentleman made a speedy recovery!

Our next event was a self funded “end of term” social event up in the mountains. As our Monday night 1st aid refresher sessions have finished until September, we had a gathering to take some well deserved time out. The good folk at Alevkayasi did us proud once again with fabulous meze and delicious main courses. The food and conversation flowed until the early hours of the evening when we all made our way home full up and content.

Our last commitment of three was back up into the mountains on the final leg of our 1st aid training of the forest firemen. This time we were way out west to Guzelyurt. Once again we were in a stunning location with a very welcome breeze to keep us all cool. Steve Collard even demonstrated how he would look behind bars – personally I think he prefers to be in front of them! Once again a great time was had by all. The firemen threw themselves into the training session with gusto and all got involved in the practical sessions. This last training session means we have now trained approximately 120 forest firemen.

If you would like to see us in action or would like to come along and ask us questions about how to join or how to arrange a 1st aid course, we will be on duty at the Peace and Freedom Day parade in Girne on Saturday 20th July. The parade starts at 16.00 hours but we will be there before so feel free to come and have a chat. Once again we have been given the great honour of taking part in the parade itself so please come along to show your support.