Member Article

Stoke shopping centre and car dealership urge local community to protect a heart this Valentine's Day

Affinity Outlet Staffordshire in Talke Pits and Hill & Swift Ford Dealership in Meaford installed two life-saving AEDs (automated external defibrillators) this week to mark the launch of new charity partnership.

Project Heartbeat and AEDdonate have teamed up to improve survival rates from out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in Stoke, Staffordshire and around the UK.

Project Heartbeat encourages businesses to sponsor community defibrillators and was launched by manufacturers Cardiac Science last year. AEDdonate helps schools, pubs, clubs and communities to fund-raise for their own AEDs.

Jamie Richards, Chief Executive of AEDdonate, based in Stone, said the Project Heartbeat brand would be used to shape a more concerted campaign into business to see value in sponsoring an AED in their local community. “It’s a similar fund-raising message to the one we give to pubs, clubs and schools across the UK. Please do your bit to get more public access defibrillators in place to help us tackle out- of-hospital SCAs, which is the UK’s biggest killer.”

Debra Bailey, Centre Administrator at the Affinity Outlet shopping centre, which hosts a variety of fashion and homeware high street stores and cafes, welcomed the install.

“We have an annual footfall of around two million so it is great to be a beneficiary of this first device in a new era for AEDdonate. We will be making sure that our customers are fully aware that it is now available, giving us all better protection in the event of an emergency.”

Gary Swift, Owner of Hill & Swift agreed: “We hope never to have to use the AED but now it’s here for us, our customers and the wider public to access if needed. Any partnership which helps take the fund-raising message from AEDdonate into businesses has got to be applauded – we wish them every success.”

According to AEDdonate out-of-hospital SCAs kill c 30,000 people a year. In most communities the average time for emergency services to arrive following a 999 call is between 8 and 11 minutes. In the case of an SCA the victim’s survival rate drops by 7-10% for every minute’s delay. Defibrillation within 3-5 minutes of collapse can produce survival rates as high as 50-70%*. But devices are not mandatory and there is a serious gap in public access provision.

For a four year deal, sponsoring businesses will get full accreditation on the installed device which includes a defibrillator, a protective cabinet and advertising hoarding plus ongoing support from AEDdonate who will look after maintenance and any replacement parts if required.

Jamie Richards again: “Over the course of the sponsorship, the cost is less than the price of a daily coffee so Stoke businesses can make a real difference here. All they need to do is commit to the process and we will take care of finding the host sites like the shopping centre and car dealership, registering the device with the local ambulance service - and making it all happen.”

Shaun Ingram, Managing Director of Cardiac Science commented: “There is nothing AEDdonate don’t know about fund-raising for communities and their track record speaks for itself. We are delighted that Project Heartbeat is now under their stewardship to encourage commercial organisations to join the fight against out of hospital SCAs and their devastating consequences.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Souter .