LEICESTER’S elected members have been learning life-saving skills thanks to a partnership between the city council and a local heart charity.
Councillors were invited by the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Cllr Teresa Aldred, to an awareness-raising and training session at the Town Hall, where they learned more about the Heartshield project.
Heartshield was launched by Leicester City Council’s public health team, East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) and local heart charity the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT). Its aim is to map out available defibrillators and fill in the gaps by installing new ones where needed. As a result, in the last 18 months, 11 new defibrillators have been installed across the city.
Leicester currently has 121 community defibrillators that are publicly accessible 24 hours a day and registered on The Circuit, the British Heart Foundation’s national defibrillator network, which connects devices to ambulance services so they can be located quickly in an emergency. Immediate CPR and defibrillation can increase the chances of survival to over 50%.
At the awareness-raising session, staff from the council’s public health team presented councillors with information about the Heartshield project and the importance of having defibrillators in communities where we all work and live. It is estimated that 30,000 people in Leicester live with at least one cardiovascular condition - that’s around 8% of the total population.
Councillors were also given information on how to raise awareness of sudden heart deaths in their local community, and were given data for their own wards.
They learned how they can support Heartshield’s aims for more defibrillators and training. In some areas of the city, councillors have already used community grants to support installation.
Councillors and the Lord Mayor were given a taster CPR session by Dr Mike Ferguson from JHMT, where they familiarised themselves with using an automated external defibrillator (AED).
The Lord Mayor said: “The Joe Humphries Memorial Trust is one of my chosen charities for my year in office as Lord Mayor, and I am very proud to support the Trust. JHMT works tirelessly to raise awareness of sudden heart deaths and provides equipment and training to help prevent them.
“I am sure my fellow councillors will feel just as passionately as I do that we need more defibrillators available 24/7 in our neighbourhoods. I hope that this session allowed them to find out more so that they can act as ambassadors for heart health in their communities.”
Cllr Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor responsible for public health, said: “We’ve made excellent progress in installing defibrillators and providing training across the city, but there is always more to be done. Availability of public-access defibrillators and confidence in using them is vital to improve survival rates.
“This project sets out our commitment to cardiovascular health in Leicester and our determination to work together to make Leicester a heart-safe city.”
Steve Humphries, chair of the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust said: “We’re very grateful for the support of the Lord Mayor during her year in office.
“The recent announcement that CPR training and AED awareness are to be made part of the new driving theory test from 2026 is an important and very welcome step, demonstrating a recognition of just how vital these skills are and providing a new way of reaching out effectively to the public.
“Councillors in Leicester are important conduit in spreading the vital message that CPR training and public-access defibrillators save lives, so we were delighted to be able to provide this taster session.”
Dr Mike Ferguson from JHMT added: “Out of hospital cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, of any age, at any time. Do you and the people you work with feel confident in how to give CPR if you were to see someone collapse? Would you feel confident using an automated defibrillator? If not, consider accessing some of the training freely available through us at JHMT, or through other sources such as EMAS. Being prepared is key to saving lives.”
As well as providing free CPR and defibrillator training, JHMT works hard to raise awareness of unexpected heart deaths such as sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS), and runs Inspire, a local grants scheme for inspirational young people in the city and county.
The charity has recently donated an extra 30 defibrillators and external cabinets to accelerate the Heartshield programme across the city, so more installations at community locations across Leicester are planned for the coming months.