The Aylesbury Town Mayor, Councillor Tom Hunter-Watts, inaugurated a new community automated external defibrillator today that has been placed on the outside wall of Southcourt Baptist Church in Penn Road. The brief ceremony was the culmination of almost 2 years of research, work and fundraising by Jeanette Hulcoop, a member at the church along with others from the church and community. Also attending were Councillor Waheed Raja and Mark Datson from the Grand Central Management Company.
Jeanette said, ‘the need for this defibrillator became clear when we realised that the only others available in the area were at Mandeville Surgery and in Asda supermarket at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Neither are available 24/7 and are really too far away to be of practical help to anyone having a heart attack on the Southcourt side of Churchill Avenue’
Over £2,400 has been raised from a variety of sources including; a charity car wash at ‘The Great Get Together’ held at the Grand Central development in memory of the MP Jo Cox, a church Christmas offering, the church Playgroup, as well as significant individual donations. This enabled the acquiring of the defibrillator and its secure cabinet through The Community Heartbeat Trust who specialise in supporting organisations seeking to provide public access defibrillators.
Southcourt Baptist Church Senior Pastor, David Graham, commented, ‘this has been a great initiative and is another example of the many things we do to be an active part of our local community in Southcourt and across Aylesbury’.
A Cardiac Arrest Awareness and Training Seminar is to be held at Southcourt Baptist Church on Wednesday 13th June at 7:30pm to which everyone is welcome. This will help people to understand how to help someone having a cardiac arrest and how to use a defibrillator. For further details contact the church office on 01296 480080.