Volunteers pay tribute to ‘amazing’ Janet after award

A founder member of the Manningtree community first responder group, Janet Webb, has been honoured with a local hero award at an awards ceremony in Colchester on Thursday (21^st May).

Janet received the Emergency Services Award from north Essex radio station, Dream 100 FM, who were celebrating local people who have gone out of their way to help others.

Janet said: “I was quite overwhelmed but really happy and quite emotional when I found out. I had a fantastic time at the awards and was really happy the group nominated me. Without them I couldn’t do what I’m doing. We’re always there for each other.”

A host of former X Factor contestants were on hand at Thursday’s ceremony, with awards presented by Stevie Ritchie and performances from Lydia Lucy and Stacey Soloman.

The mum-of-two grown up children said she turns on the on-call responder phone whenever possible, even at 11pm after finishing work at the local leisure centre. She said: “As long as I’m in the call-out area I put the phone on.”

Kevin Hudson, a fellow founder member of the Manningtree group, said: “People like Janet are very few and far between. She has been a responder for ten years and for the entire time her commitment has been one hundred and fifty per cent. I’ve lost count of the number of cardiac arrests she’s been to. It’s an amazing achievement.”

The Manningtree CFRs have recently celebrated their tenth anniversary and cover a large area. Janet has been working on her own in Brantham since 2014 – coving an incredible 3,943 hours, or the equivalent of 525 working days. In this time she has attended 47 life threatening 999 calls.

Published 29th May 2015