Starting from Scratch: Weʼre raising £2,000 to buy a defibrillator for the football, cricket and tennis clubs of Bourton-on-the-Water.

Gary ‘Scratch’ Hitchman, a Bourton Rovers Football Club veteran, was preparing to complete his round at Wychwood golf course three weeks ago, when he had a heart attack on the final hole.

It could have been any one of us. Scratch had just turned 50, has an active job as a builder and played sport all his life. Former Rovers’ team-mates, Paul Heming and Stephen Stroud were alongside him together with Graham Ratcliffe, and in the clubhouse, just a few yards away, was a defibrillator.

They combined to save his life. Through standard CPR, survival rates drop as low as 7%, efficiently using a defib can boost this to 90%. For Scratch, and for many others, it proves a lifesaving piece of equipment.

It has also focused our minds to the urgent need for a defib to be publicly available at the football club on Rissington Road, available for the cricket and tennis clubs and everyone else who lives in the vicinity or is passing through.

Scratch’s example proves how important this is. Please help us hit our target.