Estelle Spiers, founder of Heart-Beats, explains why she started the charity and the work that it does.
After losing my dad three years ago to cardiac arrest, I took an interest in defibrillators and the lack of them available 24 / 7.
I decided to raise money and place one in memory of my mum and dad. One year later, Heart-Beats registered as a charity.
Since the start of fundraising, 12 defibrillators in cabinets have been installed, and although people may think we have enough, there will never be enough.
Good CPR and defibrillation within the first five minutes improve survival chances by up to 70%, which reduces with every minute.
All my defibrillators are registered on the circuit, the national database, meaning if you should phone 999, the call handler will be able to give you the code to unlock the nearest cabinet, which they should be able to direct you to.
I check and clean all cabinets and defibs every three months to ensure they are in full working order.
I have also worked closely with Andy at Aplus Medical Services and Training. We have provided CPR and defibrillation workshops for over 100 people, baby save sessions, and some mini medic groups, teaching children CPR, etc.
We were also the first in Retford to add bleed kits in some of our cabinets, used for catastrophic bleeds in any instance.
You can find Heart-Beats DN22 on Facebook and Instagram, where you can contact me to help spread the message, raise funds to get machines and training out there and give everyone deserves the best chance of survival.