June 27, 2015 8.44 am This story is over 105 months old

Lincolnshire Co-op shoppers raise nearly £50k for volunteer lifesavers

Increased funding: Volunteer medics and first responders from Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Services’ (LIVES) have received a welcome boost from Lincolnshire Co-op shoppers.

Volunteer medics and first responders from Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Services’ (LIVES) have received a welcome boost from Lincolnshire Co-op shoppers.

LIVES was nominated as Lincolnshire Co-op’s Community Champion from March to June of this year.

The Community Champions scheme sees every one of the society’s 241,000 members linked to a good cause close to where they live.

Every time a customer has used their dividend card in a Lincolnshire Co-op outlet for the last three months, a donation from the Community Champions pot has gone towards more than 80 LIVES and first responder groups.

Members have raised a total of £48,370 for local lifesavers just by shopping.

The money will be spent on training and buying vital medical equipment such as defibrillators and specialist kit for the LIVES medics as well as sustaining first responder groups.

LIVES is currently celebrating its 45th anniversary of helping Lincolnshire residents who have required emergency care.

Fundraising manager for the charity Stephen Hyde said: “This donation means the world to us and to be recognised by Lincolnshire Co-op with a whole three months of fundraising has raised so much awareness of LIVES which is just as important.

“The amount of money raised is phenomenal – anything over £10k is huge so over £48k is unbelievable – it’s the largest amount we’ve ever had donated from an organisation. It will help save lives without a doubt.

“It costs £1m a year to keep LIVES running and we attend 18,500 calls a year. People think we will always be here to help but the reality is we need donations like this to continue to save lives in our communities.”

Find out more about LIVES and how to volunteer on their website.