A CHARITY made up of volunteer doctors has been putting its new equipment to good use during Storm Arwen after receiving a major cash boost.

The BEEP Doctors charity, which operates right across Cumbria, received a grant of £83,500 from the Mark Benevolent Fund, working for the province of Cumberland and Westmorland.

The cheque was presented to the crew by the Freemasons of West Cumbria and has paid for some equipment that will help the volunteer doctors save even more lives across the county.

With the funding the BEEP Doctors have been able to purchase seven Shiller “Touch 7” monitor/defibrillators, plus nine Schiller AED Defibrillators.

Theo Weston, chairman of BEEP said: “The new equipment will make an enormous difference to the work that we do attending the sick and injured at the roadside in Cumbria.

“In fact, it’s the first time in over 25 years that we’ve been able to equip all fifteen doctors with full state of the art monitoring and defibrillation capabilities and therefore we will be able to provide a lot more substantial and reliable care to the patients that we treat.

“This is a massive step forward for the charity as we move towards a much more robust, reliable & resilient IT based patient monitoring and treatment setup. So, thank you from all our doctors and the people of Cumbria who will benefit from this, for making this possible.”

The team was called out several times over the weekend due to Storm Arwen and was able to put its new equipment to good use as doctors worked closely with the Northwest Ambulance Service, fire service, mountain rescue and Cumbria Police.

Two doctors were called to assist at a call out in Ambleside with multiple incidents of trees falling on people. The conditions were particularly treacherous and the BEEP Doctors’ XC1 vehicle needed support from the mountain rescue to ensure the team got back to the south of the county safely.

Four BEEP Doctors were also called to two road traffic accidents involving serious injuries in the north of the county.

In 2021 the BEEP Doctors set out on a mission to raise over £145,000 and with this donation it has now smashed through that target.

And in 2022 it aims to raise funds to buy four new vehicles for the fleet. The team are currently looking for donors, fundraisers and corporate supporters who could support them in this new challenge.