Harborough businesses come together to fund life-saving defibrillator

MD Mark Ashton, Bridget Hankers, Roseanne Steedman, Julie Kendrick and Louise Hammond of Ashton Marketing Services with the new defibrillator.

A life-saving defibrillator has been installed in a Harborough business park.

The £2,000 machine has been funded by four businesses on Sovereign Park Industrial Estate - Reflex Packaging Solutions, CDS Global, Lockbolt ERS and Ashton Marketing Services. Staff will be trained in how to use it to potentially save the life of someone suffering a cardiac arrest. The machine delivers a shock to the patient, with the aim of correcting or restarting their heartbeat.

According to The British Heart Foundation (BHF), around 60,0000 of cardiac arrests happen outside of hospitals in the UK while only three per cent of defibrillators are used in such emergencies.

The decision to fund the machine followed an incident in Harborough where a shopper collapsed in a supermarket. There was no defibrillator in the immediate area, but one was sourced from a venue around five minutes away. Sadly, the man died despite efforts from the community and paramedics to save him.

The BHF says a defibrillator is its most effective when used within the first minute of someone collapsing, boosting their survival rate up to 90 per cent. If it is used within three to five minutes, their survival rate drops by 16 per cent.

Ashton Marketing sales director Adrian Hyde recently became a member of Lutterworth Community First Responders – volunteers who are trained to assist in certain medical emergencies before paramedics are able to attend – inspiring the move to have a defibrillator installed.

Adrian said: “I became a first responder to help people in my community offering a faster response to an emergency.

“With the pressure the ambulance service is facing at the moment and having just lost my dad, I felt this was the right time to be proactive and get involved.”

The automatic defibrillator can be used by anyone in the Harborough community and will be registered on a nationwide map known as ‘The Circuit’. This means, in an emergency, an operator can direct the caller to their nearest defibrillator.

For more information about defibrillators visit www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/defibrillators and for details on becoming an community first responder visit: www.emas.nhs.uk/join-the-team/volunteers/community-first-responders.