Defibrillator Awareness Last year we ran the remarkable story of Tair who suffered a cardiac arrest at a football match. Luckily his friends who incidentally are doctors, were on hand and got him the treatment he needed on time. Dr Ripon Ahmed has taken the matter further and highlighted the need for defibrillators at sports venues across Sheffield. A defibrillator is a portable machine that can help restart the heart by delivering a controlled electric shock through the chest wall. Earlier this year doctors around the city, called for defibrillators to be as 'ubiquitous' as fire extinguishers, after research revealed that the machines were on-hand in public spaces
for just four percent of heart attacks The Lucozade Powerleague in Sheffield, where Tair had his cardiac arrest last year, has purchased a defibrillator as a result. Lets hope this practice is repeated across Sheffield and Rotherham and other sports facilities are encouraged to have defibrillators on hand. Some initiatives are already highlighting the value of the device. Westfield Health the Not-for-profit organisation has donated a number of defibrillators around Sheffield in its ‘Heart of Sheffield’ campaign. When someone has a cardiac arrest, defibrillation needs to be prompt. For every minute that
Dr Ripon Ahmed passes without defibrillation, chances of survival decrease by around ten per cent. It is estimated there are around 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK each year. Of these, around 30,000 are treated by emergency medical services.
Dr Merban Ghani
SHEFFIELD SUPER TRAM MARK 20 YEAR JOURNEY It is exactly 20 years since trams rolled into Sheffield. A total of 15 million journeys are made on the network every year and now extensions are planned on the line. But, two decades on has it been a success? It must be the only public transport system to have an announcement to "hold tight please". The trill ring of its bell is a sound Sheffield would now seem strange without, but it has been a bumpy ride for Sheffield's Supertram. The city was actually one of the last places to stop using its original trams. The trolley buses came off the road in 1960 as car-use in South Yorkshire rocketed. More
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than 30 years after they had left the streets, trams had returned in Sheffield, but they were not popular. Supertram was first announced in 1985 and the stretch of track connecting Sheffield city centre with the new Meadowhall Shopping Centre opened in March 1994. For the first few years the scheme was seen as a failure. Cheaper, more regular buses were still the best way to get around the city and passengers trusted their commutes to wheels rather than rail. The first predictions of passenger numbers were well off the mark and there was concern the £240m it took to build the system
was looking like poor value for money. People in South Yorkshire were paying for a network that looked like it was not going anywhere. Who should bear the cost became a big issue. In 1998, a deal was done with the then Labour government so that costs were reduced, but people living in South Yorkshire were paying 5p a week each for Supertram. And they will still be paying for it for another 10 years. Fifteen million journeys are now made every year on the system and it is now profitable according to Stagecoach, which has the contract to run it until 2024. The tram system helped transform the centre of Sheffield including the filling in of the city's infamous Hole In the Road subway Twenty years on, with a wider network and plans for extension, Sheffield's Supertram is regarded as one of the city's success stories. Neighbouring Rotherham will soon see trams rolling into town with work expected to start this year on the government's ambitious Tram-Train project.
NEW COMMUNITY RADIO LICENCES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The news of two licences being approved came as a surprise to commentators who were only expecting one licence for the area. Muhammad Ali, Chairperson of the Pakistan Muslim Centre feels that this may be because of the high standard of the applications. “We were able to show evidence to the satisfaction of the assessors that at PMC we have a substantial asset base, stable organisation, financial viability along with staff and directors with a broad range of expertise.” He was grateful to those who had contributed to the success of their bid “We had our own team working on this intensively over a period of time bringing together the different strands of the project. I’d like to thank in particular Waheed Akhtar, Ibrar Khan, Ahmed Deen, Dr Abdul Rob and Raja Mohammed Saqlain for working together
effectively to compile the successful bid. Many other people have also offered their support to us through this process and we look forward to working with them in the next stage. Underlying all this of course the community backing and support was essential.” Mohammed Shabbir Mughal of Iman FM said “We are very pleased to have successfully gained the five year licence. It’s something that the community has been waiting for over many years. We have been broadcasting with Radio Ramadhan Sheffield for fourteen years as well as Radio Hajj Sheffield and Radio Milad Sheffield. These were all for a period of one month at a time with the restricted service licence, yet we worked hard to establish a good reputation for the city, having set up the first Ramadhan radio in Sheffield. Now we can broadcast continuously for five years.”
He was also keen to acknowledge the support and contributions of a dedicated team working on the bid “I would like to thank the whole board and the community for their support in making this application successful, and in particular Hafiz Muhammad Anwar Zahidy and Muhammad Shoaib.” Ofcom’s decision to award the licences was based on both stations understanding community needs and being able to cater for those needs; their ability to maintain broadcasting over the licence period; and broadening the range of provision available in the area as well as a number of other criteria. Four other applications in Sheffield were unsuccessful. ILM News would like to congratulate all the community on the successful awards to Iman FM and Unity FM.
Celebratory party courtesy of Apna Restaurant Rotherham
Increase Of Asylum Applicants In EU In 2013, 435,000 asylum applicants were registered in the European Union (EU), 100,000 more than last year. Around 90 percent of the applicants are new while around 10 percent are repetitive applicants. A report said the highest number of applicants was registered in
Germany, followed by France, Sweden, Britain and Italy. These five member states accounted for 70 percent of all applicants registered in the EU in 2013. The report also said Syrians and Russians accounted for nearly a quarter of all asylum seekers and 65 percent of first instance
decisions made on asylum applications were rejections. The report defines Asylum applicant as a person having submitted an application for international protection or having been included in such application as a family member during the reference period.
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