UPDATE: Weds 6.12.17

£2279.65 RAISED OF £2900 TARGET 👏👏 Thanks to all of you!

We have finally established with certainty that we DO have to pay the VAT on the new cabinet/complete unit, so we need to raise the full amount of £2900. As of today (6.12.17) that leaves us £620.35 short.

We have placed the order for the new units and will make the shortfall up from group funds. But if you would like to donate there's still time - at this link 👍 https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rossallbeachdefib.

A BIG thank you to everyone who has fundraised and helped x

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UPDATE: Thurs 12.10.17

ROSSALL BEACH DEFIB CAMPAIGN - Raising £2900 to incl DEFIB no 2

Total raised to date £1852.00 including cash and grants (see below)

Overnight on 4 October the AED on Rossall Promenade was vandalised. At your suggestion, the Rossall Beach Group set up a JustGiving page to collect for a replacement box.

The response was so overwhelming that we decided to carry on and raise money for ANOTHER unit which is going on the wall outside The Venue.

We are replacing ours with a more robust case and installing the new robust type at The Venue. The total cost is £2900.

HERE'S HOW YOU CAN DONATE:

*ONLINE https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rossallbeachdefib

* MENTION the defib fund when you eat at The Venue and they will donate £1 from each meal during October.

* REGAL Coffee and Chat group are donating proceeds from this weeks raffle (donate there on Fri/Sat 10.30-11.30am)

* MORRISON'S at Cleveleys are holding a raffle to raise funds

* PETE SKINNER is busking 👍

* CLLR ANDREA KAY has offered £500 from her LCC fund

If you would like to make a cash/cheque donation please just get in touch/ask. MANY THANKS!!! You've been so kind xxx

RUNNING BALANCE AT 7pm on 12.10.17 = £1852.00

£65 - Cash donations received

£1132.00 - JustGiving account , including money raised by:

- Singleton Cloggers, and Pete Skinner, busking in Cleveleys

£500 - pledged from Cllr Andrea Kay

NORTHFOLD SCHOOL raised £60 from a bucket collection

£61 raised from sales of notebooks donated by Nora at meeting on 11.10.17

£34 from the Rossall Beach Group raffle

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UPDATE: Mon 2.10.17

We now have the actual defib itself back and the good news is that it's in working order. The bad news is that a stronger, more robust box will be expensive. We don't know how much it will cost yet but believe it will be the thick end of a thousand pounds.

We have been touched and heartened by your response - so much so that we would like to bring a good result out of a bad act, and raise enough funds to install a second unit on the seafront. A 4 minute walk radiates from each public AED, meaning that our box literally covers our beach. A second unit would give coverage as far as the Jubilee Leisure Park. We will be working with our friends at The Venue to install the additional unit there.

So please continue to support this campaign - you're helping to do a really great job.

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Rossall Beach Residents & Community Group were devastated to learn that the community defibrillator, which we organised installation of and maintain, was vandalised by youths at 4am this morning (Wednesday 27 September).

It appears that this is the only defibrillator to have been vandalised in the whole of Lancashire.

Four late-teenage youths, three of them riding bikes, were seen by a resident at 4.05am, hammering at the weather proof casing unit and separate key box with a rock from the beach. They have broken the key box but not managed to extract the key from inside it, and instead have smashed the box sufficiently to remove and take the defibrillator unit itself. The defibrillator was later found thrown on the beach. The incident was reported to the police.

We worked with North West Ambulance Service in early 2016 to provide this public access external defibrillator for everyone’s benefit. Not only is this a residential area where a lot of elderly people live, it is also very busy practically every day of the year. It was an important piece of equipment which could be used to save lives.

The resident who saw the crime being committed said “I’m very disappointed as this is a vital piece of Lifesaving Equipment supported by NWAS. This was a thoughtless act, that four youths choose to vandalise such an important piece of Lifesaving equipment as it was strategically positioned on the Promenade to support the local community.”

In total, the equipment and case will cost £1800 to replace.

The Ambulance Service are checking the defibrillator equipment to see if it is still functional, but the casing unit and the key box will both have to be replaced at some considerable cost. We are speechless that these people find this behaviour acceptable, especially when it’s something that is designed to save lives.

If the defibrillator is in working order and can return to service, the money raised through this campaign will be used to pay for another defibrillator elsewhere.

You can join our group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RossallBeachBuddies/

If you want to come along and get involved with a great group of people you're always welcome to come to beach cleans and meetings. Everyone welcome!

PLEASE NOTE: Rossall Beach Residents & Community Group is a registered charity, number 1148840