The Trainee Trimmer's in Stoddart's are raising money to fund a defibrillator for the factory. In 2016, for every one million people in the UK, there were 5.5 fire-related fatalities. This low number is mostly thanks to the preventative measures that are required throughout the UK, such as smoke alarms and extinguishers. There are, quite rightly, many requirements when it comes to fire-safety equipment in the workplace.

Now, let’s consider that there are 30,000 out-of- hospital sudden cardiac arrests (SCAs) in the UK each year. This means that 100 people a week suffer SCAs in the workplace!!!

When someone suffers an SCA, the electrical rhythm that controls their heart changes to a chaotic electrical rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF). VF can only be treated by an AED – AEDs work by shocking the heart back into its natural rhythm. The defibrillator is a device that gives a high energy electric shock to the heart of someone who is in cardiac arrest. This high energy shock is called defibrillation, and it's an essential part in trying to save the life of someone who’s in cardiac arrest.

AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) are portable and compact, and the greatest care has been made to ensure they are easy to use by everyone. Their instructions are so straightforward that even a person who has never seen an AED before can use one. defibrillator is a device that gives a high energy electric shock to the heart of someone who is in cardiac arrest.

In a recent survey, three quarters of people said they wouldn’t feel confident enough to act if they saw someone having a cardiac arrest. With more CPR training and greater awareness, we can change that.