BASICS Devon, which has volunteer immediate care doctors in Holsworthy and Stratton, are bidding to bag a cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative.

Tesco works with Groundwork to run its community funding scheme, which sees grants of £2,000, £1,000 and £500 awarded to local community projects.

Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.

BASICS Devon is one of the groups on the shortlist at the Braunton Tesco Superstore. Voting is now open in all Tesco stores throughout January, February and March and BASICS Devon hopes people will cast their vote and support them.

BASICS Devon is a charity offering experienced doctors to assist frontline emergency services colleagues when attending medical and trauma emergencies in the community. The BASICS doctors bring additional skills, drugs and equipment to emergency situations.

The charity hope to have an additional rural emergency medical responder in North Devon.

Dr Angus Macdonald, a BASICS Devon volunteer immediate care doctor from Stratton, said: “We work very closely with our prehospital colleagues and do this in our off-duty time. BASICS Devon doctors cover most of the county but with the retirement of colleague Dr Stephen Myers, we still have a gap in the North Devon area.”

Dr Myers was a locally well-respected GP based in Barnstaple and set a high standard to follow. Locally, Dr Macdonald continues to cover the Cornish border to the south, with Dr Hillebrandt based from Holsworthy and recently Dr Fred Declerk from Tiverton joining the team.

BASICS Devon doctors are often first on the scene — be it at the roadside, in a field, on a farm or a home emergency. In 2019 there were 463 emergency call outs, 144 of those were at night, that BASICS Devon volunteer doctors responded to, some of which were rural, hard to reach incidents.

Funding will ensure an additional doctor can be trained, fully equipped and supported to cover the area.

Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme has already provided more than £80-million to more than 27,000 projects across Britain. Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop.

Every three months, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.

David Page, head of community at Tesco, said: “Bags of Help contributes funds to community projects up and down the country and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers voting in their local stores. We’re looking forward to seeing more projects brought to life.”

Groundwork’s national chief executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down Britain to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp