Alcester Defibrillators

Together we CAN make Alcester safer!

On Saturday 27 April 2024, I was part of a group, who helped a young man back to life at the Greig Leisure Centre. He survived thanks to the CPR he was given AND the defibrillator in place at the leisure centre.

In the afternoon, I returned to our home in Alcester Park. Obviously, the incident was still very much with me. I started to research where I would find a defibrillator in Alcester, should I ever find myself in a similar situation. I must admit, I was shocked by my findings…

The Circuit is the national defibrillator network, which maps defibrillators across the UK, connecting them directly and automatically to the ambulance service. Everyone can locate the registered defibrillators on The Circuit via www.defibfinder.uk

Depending on the location of a defibrillator, it can be either available 24/7 or available within opening hours, and it can be either accessible to the public or have restricted access.

Alcester has 15 defibrillators registered on The Circuit, which are both accessible to the public and available 24/7.

However, this number is only true if they are all fully maintained with battery and pads and therefore haven’t been in use very recently. Also, their locations are not evenly spread out across town.

Another 9 is registered on The Circuit with either restricted access or varied availability - or both! On top of this, I recently found out of another handful of defibrillators in Alcester from the Alcester Town Council’s Spring 2025 newsletter. Unfortunately, these defibrillators are far less likely to be at the right place at the right time due to their limited availability. And now you might think that the mentioned 15 defibrillators are more than plenty, but you need to consider the fact: The British Heart Foundation recommends a defibrillator should be no further from you than 2 minutes each way (equivalent to a 2x 200-meter brisk walk), and it needs to be active (fully maintained) in order to be of any use.

At Alcester Park, we were too far from one with 24/7 public access.

Some further research taught me that 8 in 10 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK happen at home, and less than 10% survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

I needed to do SOMETHING!

10 months later (March 2025), I can now say that we have reached the goal of fundraising for 3 defibrillators to Alcester Park.

A huge thank you to all of you, who have supported the fundraising, and especially those of you, who have taken part in the fundraising work:

• Run Alcester

• Alcester Town Football Club

• The family and friends of Clive Bennett

• Walls and Ceilings International

• The Holly Bush

• Alcester Academy

This is a true testament to Alcester at its best.

Alongside this fundraising, I’ve worked with Ann Delany from Alcester Heart Safe, who’ve been doing an amazing job in applying for even more funds for further 2-3 defibrillators to Alcester Town.

The Alcester Community First Responders have agreed to be custodians of the all the raised funds, so they will be ringfenced for the purchase of the defibrillators and their maintenance. They have also advised us, that the average cost of the maintenance of one defibrillator is £10 per month, which is why our fundraising work will continue.

Together we WILL make Alcester safer!

Please be aware: Each donation via this GoFundMe page will be deducted a transaction fee of 2.9% of the donation + a fixed fee of 25p. If you take part in the fundraising work, please get in touch before sending a large amount through the GoFundMe page.

Updated: 16th March 2025