School defibrillator now available to all

A heart defibrillator in Lees has been made available to the community following the combined efforts of St Agnes School, Saddleworth Rotary Club and Councillor Alicia Marland.

Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Alicia Marland said: “I started a project last year with the aim to increase the number of defibrillators available to the residents of Lees, Grotton and Springhead.  A defibrillator, or AED, is an emergency medical device which can deliver a controlled electric shock to try and get the heart beating normally again in the event of a cardiac arrest.  I approached many local groups and schools and was delighted when Miss Butterworth, Headteacher at St Agnes school, welcomed my suggestion to relocate their internal AED to an external wall in order to make it available for use by all”. 

St Agnes school on Knowls Lane in Lees had purchased a defibrillator some years ago for a pupil who has a known heart condition.  Miss Butterworth said “I felt it was important to the wider community that this life saving device was available to everyone, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so I’m delighted that this has now been achieved”.

This would only have been possible through financial support from the Saddleworth Rotary Club who agreed to Councillor Marland’s request when she was seeking funding for cabinets for this project.  Dr Ian Brett, President of Saddleworth Rotary Club said “as a retired Doctor I know how important it is that defibrillators are widely available and particularly in rural areas or areas where it may take longer for an ambulance to arrive.  The Rotary Club members and I were fully supportive of Councillor Marland’s request for funding and I am delighted we were able to purchase the AED cabinet and that this defib is now operational”.

Councillor Marland used her Councillor budget to pay the cabinet installation fee so it was a real joint effort by all parties to make this possible.  She said “this is the first of four new defibrillator locations so I’m hopeful that the rest will be installed by the end of April – the more the better to improve the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest. If you're with someone who's having a cardiac arrest, call 999 and starting immediate CPR is vital as it keeps blood and oxygen moving to the brain and around the body.

“When you call 999, the call handler will instruct the caller to begin CPR immediately – you will be told how – and to send someone else to bring a defibrillator. You will be asked for the postcode for your location and informed of the nearest publicly available defibrillator and the entry code for the defibrillator box would be given.

“However, if you are not automatically provided this information but you know where your nearest defibrillator machine is, you can ask the ambulance call handler for the code saying that it is within a short distance from your location.”

“I have organised regular CPR and defibrillator training sessions held by First Responders from the North West Ambulance Service for the local community to give people the confidence to know what do in an emergency situation as often people don’t think they should get involved for fear of doing something wrong”.  

There are publicly accessible defibrillator machines located at Lido House in Grotton, Old Mill House in Springhead, Springhead Community Centre on Ashes Lane and Lees Library Hub.