BEEP Doctors charity gets two new cars to boost life saving work in Cumbria

A small team of volunteers responding to medical emergencies across Cumbria have been given a helping hand by one of the region's biggest employers.

The charity BEEP Doctors gained two brand new vehicles courtesy of £87,000 of funding from Sellafield.

When John Ferris is not working at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, he is on call as a BEEP Doctor.

He responds to emergencies in West Cumbria and believes the charity's new vehicles will be highly beneficial.

He said: "I have worked in many emergency type models around the UK and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the challenge in West Cumbria is completely unique really.

"We are very rural. The major hospitals that we would expect to take people to with big injuries are based in Newcastle two and a half hours away."

The money for the new vehicles came from Sellafield

BEEP Doctors is a team of a dozen volunteers who support the ambulance service by providing specialist treatment, often at the roadside, that is usually only available at hospital.

Martin Chown is CEO at Sellafield. He said: "I think it's just amazing. I've been speaking to the guys here about what they do. Some of the incidents that I've attended time is really of the essence.

"When people have accidents or they need some urgent care. The minutes that we save by having this service in these vehicles really make a difference to the outcome for patients in our community."

Chris Moss is a BEEP doctor based in Kendal. He says the new vehicles will play a key role in increasing the charity's visibility.

He said: "Quite often we find very few people know about boot doctors because you only know about it when you're unconscious on the roadside and quite often they just assume it's just been the ambulance service delivered to them to the hospital.

"So having these branded cars and the fact they've got the QR codes and the sort of links to the websites really just help increase our little charity's profile across Cumbria."

Next year will mark three decades since the BEEP Doctors formed.

They're credited with saving hundreds of lives in that time. The hope is that their new cars could help them take their vital work even further.