This month, I am absolutely delighted to have been involved in training 74 residents of a street in Salisbury – Wellington Way – in CPR and using a defibrillator. Spearheaded by two residents, Spencer Mulholland and David Connett, the community decided they should have their own defibrillator and after securing funding for half of the cost, the community put their hands in their own pockets and more than enough donations were made to meet the remaining cost. Their new defibrillator is publicly available, in a specialist cabinet fitted to Spencer’s garage with exterior lighting to help if it’s needed at night.
To make sure everyone in the community knows how to use the defibrillator, Spencer and Dave approached me to run a training session. With the help of Tesco, who provided their community room free of charge, we ran 3 sessions and trained over 70 people so they are confident to carry out CPR and use their defibrillator. With over 80% of out of hospital cardiac arrests occurring in the home, they are a whole community of lifesavers ready to help each other in the event of an emergency – what an amazing community spirit! The defibrillator has been logged on ‘The Circuit’, which is the British Heart Foundation’s database of publicly available defibrillators. You can find your nearest 10 units by going to https://defibfinder.uk and entering your postcode. Read more about their story here.
Winterbury Training provided the training free of charge in return for donations towards the running costs of the John McNeill Opportunity Centre – Salisbury’s nursery for children with complex special needs, which I support as their Chair of Trustees. Donations totalling over £200 were received – so not only have the community supported each other, but they’ve also supported a local charity. Fantastic effort all round!
We’ve also run two free training sessions for the community where Winterbury Training is based, Winterslow near Salisbury, training a further 20 people and introducing them to 4 of the 5 different defibrillator models available for public use in the Winterslow community.
If your community has a defibrillator and you’d like some community training, I am happy to provide this free of charge to communities in the Salisbury area on the same basis of donations to a chosen charity. You can contact me at info@winterburytraining.co.uk. If you’d like any help in getting a defibrillator for your community, you can use the information below or contact Spencer Mulholland at mulhollandspencer@gmail.com.
The BHF grant programme opens again in September 2024, which covers the full cost of the device – you can find out more here.
A government programme funding 50% of the cost is currently open – more information can be found here.
The National Lottery Awards for All programme have previously provided grants for community defibrillators – find out more here.
You can also talk to your local council (Parish or Town) who may help to fund a device if your area doesn’t already have one.
