Normandy Rescue & Marshals Association.

Normandy Rescue was formed back in 2002 as part of Classic and Vintage Motor Racing Club by a team of motor sport enthusiasts to provide First Aid and Extrication of Casualties at Motor Sport events in the Channel Islands, we progressed well as a small team with training from the States of Jersey Ambulance Service and States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service with live fire training completed with Jersey Airport Fire and Rescue Service at their training ground. The team then passed an assessment by Motor Sports association which is the Governing body of motor sport through out the United Kingdom. 

 At the end of 2004 we setup Normandy Rescue & Marshals Association as a stand alone Club, which would improve our ability to go to other events in the Channel Islands and UK, by February 05 this was complete so the work started to build the team with training events in the UK coming up we managed to secure some funding from the then Sport Leisure and recreation committee we booked our two Ambulances and ten crew members on the Condor boat so that we could attend a two day training event being run by Southern Rescue Group at Goodwood Motor Circuit, all of us benefited from two days of medical and extrication training from Hampshire Ambulance and Hampshire Fire and Rescue along with the other 5 teams that attended the weekend.  Since 2005 our team have attended 120 days of events which has amounted to 5254 hours of voluntary work in supporting motor sport and other events.

During 2008 we have attended events in the UK such as the Forest of Dean Rally, Chepstow, Wales.  Sunseeker Rally, Bournemouth, UK. And world rally championship, Wales Rally GB where we sent 2 rescue units with 9 crew.  In Jersey we hold a monthly training evenings on the first Monday of each month and regular training days that involve other agencies such as States Of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service and St John Ambulance, the events we cover are all sprints and hill climbs with some of our crew assisting the St John Ambulance team at moto x which gives us a chance to gain experience dealing with casualties as two wheels seems to keep us a lot busier than 4 wheels.  We have also been very keen to start a crew in Guernsey as we have had a lot of interest from our sister Island and have had 2 fully licenced crew and a rescue unit there for the past 9 months, we have held 3 training days in Guernsey and now have 10 trainee crew which will continue with a training program for the coming season.

Our Plans for the 2009 season is to continue with the Marshals training we started in 2008 in both Jersey and Guernsey, we also took over planning of the emergency response and liaison with the emergency services and training of Marshals for the Jersey Rally which we will be continuing for the this years events.  We are setting up a Marshalling Cadet Scheme in 2009 which will consist of training teenagers to become motor sport marshals with the help of the motor clubs in Jersey, this will involve training in areas of using flags, communication, personal safety at events, spectator safety at events, first aid, fire fighting with hand held extinguishers and event management. 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the various bodies for supporting us such as Condor for there help with travel sometimes at very short notice they always find us a space for our ambulance, the Motor Clubs in the Island, and all the Emergency Services of Jersey who have helped us from the start of Normandy Rescue & Marshals Association.

If you would like to know more about our exploits and our role at Motor Sport events please contact Terry Saussey at normandyrescue@jerseymail.co.uk