Expert backs Star's Save a Life bid

A DEFIBRILATOR expert is today backing The Evening Star's campaign to help the community save lives.

Martin Render, area manager for defibrillator supplier Cardiac Science, has highlighted the importance of installing the lifesaving heart equipment into Suffolk's public places.

Cardiac Science, based in Sudbury, is involved in the government's National Defibrillator Programme which has seen the electric shock machines installed at Ipswich railway station at the Tesco store at Martlesham.

Mr Render was once a First Responder for the East of England Ambulance Service in Glemsford, which made him appreciate the importance of defibs and led to his job at Cardiac Science, one of the UK's biggest suppliers of defibs.

He spotted The Star's Spend a Little, Save a Life campaign and contacted us to pledge the company's help.

Mr Render said: “This is what we are all about.

“If it saves just one more life, it will be worth it but this is not a question of one life, it could save hundreds.

“People think it will never happen to them but it could happen to any of us.

“It is all about getting the defib to a person in the first vital five minutes. If we can get their chance of survival to up to 50 to 80 per cent, it would be worth it. The moment a person hits the ground suffering from a cardiac arrest, the clock starts ticking. These defibs are so easy to use my 12-year-old could do it.”

Mr Render hears daily tales about people's lives being saved by defibs.

He said: “One of my colleagues once saved two people at a train station in Birmingham and that has stayed with him ever since.”

The National Defibrillator programme, originally called the Defibrillators in Public Places Initiative, began in 2000. Thanks to a Big Lottery Fund award made to the British Heart Foundation last year, more than 2,300 defibs were purchased under the programme and installed in busy public places across England, including airports, railways stations, tube stations and bus stations.

Has your life been saved by a defib? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.

SPEND a Little, Save a Life is an Evening Star campaign to get lifesaving heart equipment in all of Suffolk's busiest places.

The Star has teamed up with the East of England Ambulance Service to highlight the potential lifesaving importance of defibrillators.

Commonly known as defibs, the electric shock machines are relatively cheap, easy to use and are absolutely vital for cardiac arrest patients.

From big employers to public venues and bustling shops which see thousands cross their thresholds every day - all should be rallied to invest the £1,500 it costs to buy a defib.

The difference they can make is in no doubt as for every minute's delay in getting to a patient in cardiac arrest, the chances of survival reduce by ten per cent.

To help out, the Star is offering a £10 start-up kitty to the first 20 organisations who pledge to go ahead and buy a defib.

And the cardiac charity Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome UK is putting another £50 into the kitty.

n To find out more about getting a defib, e-mail Jon Needle at jonathan.needle@eastamb.nhs.uk