We are looking to raise £1,000 to buy a defibrillator for our Walking Football Club

We are a Walking Football club based in Marbella in Spain. Walking football is football for people over the age of 50 and there are over 1,000 clubs in the UK alone.

Back in November 2017, we played in a Walking Football tournament in Portugal (see photo). One of our players, Gordon Powell who was just 65 (he is in the photo at the back, 3rd from right with the mop of grey hair!), played a 10-minute game for us at walking pace and won man of the match as he laid on both passes that led to both our goals and us winning our first ever competitive walking football match! Literally 2 or 3 minutes later, as Gordon was laughing and chatting with team mates about the match, he suddenly fell straight backwards and died of a heart condition. We later learnt he had Ischemic heart disease and his arteries had hardened and suddenly cut off the blood supply to his heart. A first aider was present at the tournament but a defibrillator was not, and we had to wait until the para-medics arrived before defibrillation started.

We were all shocked and stunned at his death. As a club, we all now feel that we should have a defibrillator present at all of our training sessions, matches and tournaments. There are defibrillators at the venues we play at, but the time it would take to find a keyholder and access them would be too long. We would like our own readily available at the side of the pitch, as time is of the essence in these situations.