Local Community Celebrates Installation of Life-Saving Defibrillator

This project was initiated by one of the residents, Mrs Mason, who was shocked when a top football player on her favourite team collapsed during a match.

It struck her that someone who is in peak physical fitness can go into cardiac arrest and that it really can happen to anyone. After Mrs Mason raised her concern with Fairhive, Neighbourhood Team Leader, Andrea Loomes started to research what she could do and applied for partial funding through a grant from the British Heart Foundation, topped up with Fairhive’s Safe Community Fund.

Peter Cooper, a first responder, gave a brief and informative talk on how these amazing pieces of kits can be the difference between life and death.

Peter also proceeded to give a demonstration on how to use the defibrillator, which Major Steve Lambert and Deputy Chairman Mini Harker were keen to get involved with.

Everyone in attendance had a great time and all agreed that more defibrillators need to be made available. The new defibrillator can be found listed on the National Defibrillator Network – The Circuit.

The Mayor of Aylesbury, and former Fairhive Homes vice chair, Cllr Steven Lambert, who attended said:

"I was delighted to help with the unveiling of the new defibrillator at Wycliffe End. This simple very effective, and potentially, life-saving equipment installed by Fairhive Homes is now in reach of hundreds of residents of Prebendal Farm”.

Steven added, "with very simple instructions - all given by the machine and the 999 operators, those vital few minutes waiting for the emergency services to arrive will make a huge difference to someone having a heart attack."

Steven is now looking to see how, working together in partnership, more defibrillators can be installed and made available in more areas of Aylesbury.

We hope the defibrillator is never needed, but thanks to Ms Mason, Andrea at Fairhive and the British Heart Foundation, the residents at Wycliffe End can rest a little easier.

Fairhive Homes Limited is a ‘not-for-profit’ Registered Provider of affordable housing for over 23,000 people living and working in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and South Northamptonshire. It owns and manages over 8500 homes.

Fairhive makes a significant social and economic contribution to the communities in which it operates and its board intend to build over 1000 new affordable homes over the next few years.

Registered Providers are assessed and rated by the Regulator of Social Housing to ensure that they effectively manage their affairs and have the financial capacity to deal with a wide range of adverse financial scenarios.

Fairhive has the top-rated assessments from the Regulator of G1 for governance and V1 for financial viability.