LEICESTER City Council says it is well on the way to achieving its target of fitting 30 community public access defibrillators (CPADs) community buildings across the city.
The lifesaving equipment is being installed on the outside of buildings as part of the Heartshield project - a partnership between the council’s public health team, the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT), and East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS).
They are in addition to the 121 CPADs already in place in the city, and are being fitted in areas where, through the Heartshield project, public health data has identified gaps in provision.
Local people, councillors and representatives of the JHMT gathered at Wesley Hall Community Centre to celebrate the latest CPAD installation, which makes this vital equipment available for use day or night.
The announcement comes in the run-up to SADS Awareness Week (28 Sept-4 Oct), an annual event organised by the JHMT in collaboration with University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust.
SADS stands for sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, a collective term for a group of deadly genetic heart conditions which cause a disturbance with the heart rhythm and can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
The JHMT was set up after Rothley teenager Joe Humphries died from SADS in October 2012, while out on a training jog near his home.
Every week in the UK, 12 young people aged12-35 die due to undiagnosed genetic heart conditions like SADS.
SADS Awareness Week is held every year around the anniversary of Joe’s untimely death, to remind and educate professionals working in healthcare and sports-related fields, and parents and carers of young people about the dangers of undiagnosed heart conditions like SADS.
Cllr Vi Dempster, asst city mayor for public health said: “Around 30,000 people in Leicester live with at least one cardiovascular condition, so it’s important we do everything we can to make this life-saving equipment available.
“Thanks to the support of the JHMT we already have defibrillators fitted in all of our primary and secondary schools and in our leisure centres. Work to fit them on the external walls of buildings where we know there are gaps in provision is progressing very well, with 18 installed since SADS Awareness Week last year.”
Dr Mike Ferguson, JHMT medical trustee said: “Every year in the UK there are 60,000 cardiac arrests - that’s one every 10 minutes. Half of these are witnessed, yet only 10% of people survive.
“It can happen to anyone, of any age, at any time and anywhere, including young people due to inherited heart conditions like SADS. It’s therefore vitally important to make defibrillators publicly accessible, and to ensure people in all communities know how to use them, and how to give CPR.”
A number of the CPADs in Leicester have been installed thanks to the support of former Lord Mayor Cllr Teresa Aldred, who chose the JHMT as her mayoral charity last year.
Five have recently been fitted thanks to an allocation of community ward funding by local councillors.
More information about the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust and activities happening as part of SADS week can be found on the JHMT website.