The upsetting scenes at the European Football Championships, when Danish player Christian Eriksen went into cardiac arrest and was only saved thanks to timely intervention of the medical staff, caused us to think about our own life saving equipment and its availability should the worst happen - for our students and staff, but also for members of the wider community who frequently use our facilities.

At St George’s we currently have one defibrillator located centrally in Upper School, and are in the process of acquiring another for the pitches. Each unit is expensive to purchase initially and to subsequently maintain; through this fundraising endeavour, we would ideally like to purchase a third defibrillator exclusively for Lower School use, as well as have some funds in reserve to fund the upkeep of all of our defibrillators.

The fundraising challenge is this: myself, Andrew Roache and Peter Verrecchia would like your generous support in doing a 24 hour painting challenge. We are all keen miniature painters in our free time and are going to get together during the holidays to paint wee models non stop for 24 hours, only allowing ourselves short food, comfort and exercise breaks. It’s not climbing Kilimanjaro or swimming the channel, but it‘ll be a test of endurance, concentration and if we can bear to be in the same room as each other for a whole day, all in the name of a good cause. We will be posting hourly updates on the staffroom team on the day of the challenge, and might even set up a 24 hour teams call for people to drop in and offer their encouragement.

Any donations towards our initial funding goal of £1000 would be very graciously received on behalf of us, the school community and anyone else who may benefit from the installation of this life saving equipment. The hope is that it will never be needed.

After Just Giving have taken their admin fees, absolutely everything raised will go towards the purchase of a third defib machine for the Lower School site and anything left will be kept in a fund designated for the upkeep and maintenance of all of our defib equipment across the school site e.g. battery changes every few years etc.

Thank you for your support,

Adam, Andrew and Peter