ONE woman’s concern for emergency medical care in rural areas has resulted in strong community participation in a number of first aid courses.

Alexis Francis-Lang of Mynydd-bach with the help of her friend Liz Thomas set about organising a first aid course in Shirenewton for Sunday 22nd January.

Within a matter of days the first course was filled with 35 participants which prompted Mrs Francis-Lang to organise a second course, this was also filled in a day.

The idea for the course came from Mrs Francis-Lang’s concern about the isolation of rural communities from timely emergency medical care.

She said: “Our community has long been aware of the vulnerability of our geographical location whilst waiting for emergency services and felt it was vitally important to be trained in basic life support skills.

"Many members of the community around Shirenewton have done a fantastic job raising money to purchase a number of defibrillators for the area and I realised that a number of people probably wouldn’t know what to do in the event of an emergency, so I decided to organise something that would allow all the local communities an opportunity to participate.”

The need for this kind of training clearly struck a nerve within the community as Mrs Francis-Lang was overwhelmed with the interest shown.

She said: "I’m thrilled at the response this has received and I hope all 60 of the participants are given the confidence to provide life saving skills if the occasion should ever arise.”

The courses will cover basic first aid, CPR and the use of defibrillators, skill which can be vital in emergency situations.

With such a strong interest shown in the courses Mrs Francis-Lang said she would consider holding more.

"Of course. You can never have too many people trained in essential life saving skills, especially in rural communities such as these.”