In April, I hosted a Defibrillator Awareness Day at the Strutts Community Centre in Belper. This was extremely well attended by constituents, representatives from schools, businesses and local organisations.
I co-hosted the event with Cllr Simon Spencer from Derbyshire County Council who had suffered a heart attack whilst at work and was lucky to survive, thanks to a defibrillator being on hand. East Midlands Ambulance Service gave a demonstration at the event of how easy it is to use a defibrillator.
There was a talk by the British Heart Foundation detailing how to access funding to purchase a machine and the Community Heartbeat Trust explained how to undertake a defibrillator project and the different types of defibrillators available. I think everyone who attended recognised the importance of having easy access to these vital machines and, as a result, I hope the number of defibrillators will increase and more lives will be saved.