Volunteers changing our society: ‘To be willing to help a neighbour is what it’s all about’

There are about 4,000 of them and they’re discretely saving Irish lives. They are volunteers with the National Network of Community First Responders, known simply as “first responders,” and they deliver citizen CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) as you wait for an ambulance.

“We’re dispatched for cardiac-related incidences and strokes, where someone is not breathing and has no pulse,” said John Fitzgerald, co-chair of the National Network of Community First Responders (CFR).