Latest news with #AndyBruce
Scotsman
06-08-2025
- Health
- Scotsman
Aberdeen First Responders revives life-saving kit with help from Scottish Building Society Foundation
The Scottish Building Society Foundation is supporting Aberdeen First Responders to save lives across North East Scotland with new and vital defibrillator equipment. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Foundation has awarded £5,000 to Aberdeen First Responders, providing the volunteer-led group with funds to upgrade its community defibrillators and essential life-saving equipment. Working closely with the Scottish Ambulance Service, the community group provides essential first-contact emergency assistance to those in need across the city and the surrounding areas. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Throughout 2024, the community group volunteered over 4,200 hours collectively, arriving first on the scene at more than 700 incidents, supporting patients to overcome a range of health emergencies including cardiac arrests, heart attacks, strokes, and seizures. Aberdeen First Responders team with new defibrillators For people suffering a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital environment every second is vital and a defibrillator can increase the chance of survival by 70% if used within the first few minutes. Across Scotland, between 1st April 2023 and 31st March 2024, there were 3,752 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) where resuscitation was attempted, representing an incidence rate of 683 OHCA per million people across the country. Founded in 2018, Aberdeen First Responders' primary goal is to arrive at incidents as quickly as possible and help stabilise patients in the crucial minutes before an ambulance arrives, helping to alleviate pressure on emergency services. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Recognising the lifesaving role it plays, the group sought funding to upgrade key equipment that had reached the end of its lifespan. The funding has helped cover the cost of new defibrillator units, replacement pads, batteries, and maintenance equipment. The devices are located in public areas and also carried by responders, meaning they are available 24/7 for emergencies across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen First Responders Chairman, Andy Bruce, said: 'Our volunteers give up their time to respond to life-threatening emergencies, often being the first on the scene. Having the right equipment and making sure it's reliable is absolutely critical.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The initiative to regenerate its defibrillators was led by Aberdeen First Responder Ewan Pow, who was recently named the First Aid Hero of the Year at the St Andrew's First Aid Scottish First Aid Awards in April. Ewan won the First Aid Hero of the Year award on his first solo call as a volunteer responder, where a routine house visit saw a low-risk patient collapse suddenly and go into cardiac arrest during assessment. Ewan called for backup, guided the patient's daughter to carry out CPR, and used a defibrillator to revive the man, keeping him stable until paramedics arrived 11 minutes later. He said: 'I've seen first-hand how early defibrillation can be the difference between life and death. With the support from the Scottish Building Society Foundation, we're now able to refresh key pieces of kit, giving our team greater confidence to act quickly and help those in urgent need. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's an investment that will have a real and lasting impact in our local community.' Paul Denton, Chief Executive of Scottish Building Society, said: 'We're proud to support Aberdeen First Responders and the critical work they do. Their team is made up entirely of volunteers, yet they provide an essential service that has already saved countless lives and will continue to do so. 'As a mutual organisation, we are committed to strengthening communities across Scotland and initiatives such as Aberdeen First Responders is exactly why we set up the Foundation – to support the incredible work happening on the ground to tackle issues such as health, isolation, and community safety. 'We look forward to supporting them further, empowering them to continue to make a positive difference, and we are proud to be part of their journey.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Launched in May 2023, The Foundation awards grants of up to £5,000 to charities and positive causes in local communities with a view to making a life-changing impact across the country. It recently closed its fifth round of funding, seeing almost £30,000 donated to local charities and good causes across the country. Since it launched, The Foundation has awarded grants to more than 40 charities across the country, allocating over £155,000 to date.
The Star
13-07-2025
- The Star
London Southend Airport closed, all flights cancelled after small plane crash
A plume of black smoke rises from an area near the runway after a small plane crash, as seen from inside a building at London Southend Airport, in Southend, Britain, July 13, 2025, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. @agussromagnoli via X/via REUTERS MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -London Southend Airport in Essex said that it has closed operations until further notice after the police said a small plane crashed at the airport on England's south-east coast on Sunday. All flights to and from the airport have been cancelled while police, emergency services and air accident investigators are attending the incident, London Southend Airport said in a post on X. "We remain on the scene of a serious incident at Southend Airport," the local Essex police said, adding that they were alerted just before 4 p.m. to reports of a collision involving a 12-metre (39.4-foot) plane. It was unclear how many people were on the plane. Images from British newspaper websites, not verified by Reuters, showed a fireball rising into the air above Southend Airport, around 35 miles (56 km) east of London. The East of England Ambulance Service said it had sent four ambulances and other response vehicles. The airport's website showed five international flights had been cancelled following the accident. (Reporting by Andy Bruce and Disha Mishra; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Sandra Maler)
USA Today
13-07-2025
- USA Today
Small plane crashes at London-area airport
A small plane has crashed at London Southend Airport on England's south east coast, police said on Sunday. "We remain on the scene of a serious incident at Southend Airport," the local Essex Police said, adding that they were alerted just before 4 p.m. to reports of a collision involving a 39-foot plane. It was unclear how many people were on the plane. Images from British newspaper websites, not verified by Reuters, showed a fireball rising into the air above Southend Airport, around 35 miles east of London. The East of England Ambulance Service said it had sent four ambulances and other response vehicles. The airport's website showed five international flights had been cancelled following the accident. (Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UK faced more producer inflation than thought, corrected official data shows
By Andy Bruce MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -Britain suffered higher rates of industrial producer price inflation than previously assumed, according to new indicative figures from the Office for National Statistics that aim to correct problems with the data. The ONS is in the process of fixing problems with a wide range of economic data including unemployment figures as well as the producer prices figures. Last month an official review called for a major restructuring of the organisation's management. Producer price data measure how input costs and selling prices of manufacturing and services companies change. The figures are used in gross domestic product data to adjust for different rates of inflation in different industries, and in some trade data too. The ONS suspended the publication of producer price data in March after finding an error in how 'chain-linking' methods had been coded into its data production systems and said on Thursday that it expected to resume normal publication in October. Thursday's figures represent work so far in correcting the data and show big upward revisions for annual input and output inflation rates for factories in 2023. They were pushed higher by average of 1.0 and 1.1 percentage points, respectively. Whereas the uncorrected data suggested that Britain flirted with deflation for factory output prices in the second half of 2023, the new series show prices rising at an annual rate of around 1%. The most recent previously published annual rate of producer output price inflation, for January 2025, was revised up to 0.6% from 0.3% and the ONS estimated that April's reading on the corrected methodology was 0.5%. "Further corrections are mostly expected to be small in magnitude," the ONS said. Annual factory input and output inflation rates peaked in 2022 at slightly higher levels than previously thought when Britain was hit by an energy price shock caused by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Revisions to producer input price inflation showed a similar pattern to those for output price inflation. The new data show annual input price inflation stood at 0.6% in January 2025, compared with a previous estimate of -0.1%. April 2025 figures showed a 1.1% annual fall in manufacturers' input costs. The new series for the services sector producer prices showed a more nuanced picture. The ONS had overestimated services output price inflation during 2022, but underestimated it through 2023 and some of 2024. (Graphics by Andy Bruce; editing by David Milliken)
Zawya
24-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
UK factories suffer bigger drop in orders during June, CBI says
British manufacturers this month reported the sharpest contraction in orders since January and expectations for selling prices cooled, the Confederation of British Industry said on Tuesday. The CBI's monthly balance for manufacturing new orders fell in June to -33 from -30 in May. The CBI's gauge of output for the past three months improved but remained rooted in contraction territory. "The UK's manufacturing sector is under significant pressure, contending with high energy costs, rising labour costs, pervasive skills shortages, and a volatile global economic environment," said Ben Jones, lead economist at the CBI. The survey's gauge of export orders rose to its highest level since August last year, meaning the worsening picture for orders overall reflected worsening domestic demand. Expectations for rising prices among manufacturers fell to their lowest level in net terms since February, the CBI said. (Reporting by Andy Bruce Editing by William Schomberg)
