The Flower Cottage Defib Fundraiser - Christmas Wish 2025

Hi! My name is Caitlin Smith and I am an Ofsted registered childminder at The Flower Cottage based in Dudley, West Midlands.

When setting up The Flower Cottage, my aim was set out to provide high quality care for children in the Early Years but also make a positive difference to our community as much as possible. We regularly get out and about in our local community, providing random acts of kindness, visiting local care homes and teaching the children the importance of the different services that are provided to help us, like our local shops, doctors, dentist and many more other public services. We also support many charities across the year and annually donate to our local food bank.

Raising money for a defib is our next goal...

Losing a parent makes this even more important to me

I have always wanted to fundraise for a special cause, raise awareness of the importance of defibs and how these can make a massive impact on lives by also shining a light on my own experiences when I was a little girl.

Raising money for a defibrillator for not just the setting but for public use also.

If we reach the target of being able to make the final purchase of our defib, it will be a very touching achievement for my own personal self. I sadly lost my dad when I was 10 years old from cardiac arrest and there was not a defibrillator in sight. I always find myself wondering what would have happened if there was, could this have saved his life? Would this then mean he could have still been here to watch my business grow and flourish? I will never know.

It would break my heart to know of any nearby incidents taking place and that a defib couldn't be located, resulting in the same unfortunate impact on another family and their future.

Do you know where your nearest defibrillator is and how to use these?

I would love for our home based setting to be able to provide an indoor defibrillator that can be used for business if ever needed but also be accessed by the public if needed too. This is why I have been regularly communicating with British Heart Foundation and London Hearts to find the best defib for both business use and public including the purchase of electrode pads from 0-year-old + AND electrode pads aged 8 +, ensuring this is an appropriate option for BOTH children and adults.

Did you know, 80% of out of hospital cardiac arrests, occur in the home?

Early defibrillation fact: for every minute the patient doesn’t have a defibrillator attached to their chest, their chances of survival reduce by 10%. We now know that early defibrillation can triple a person's chances of survival.

I have looked at all possible options with ongoing communications from BHF, including both indoor and outdoor defibs with the cabinet for public use. However, due to it being our family home and our electric gates being consistently tampered with also along with constant vandalism in the local bus stop, I would absolutely hate for all of the hard work to go to waste with the defib and cabinet being broken into or damaged in any way.

As a family and business, we have said if we reach over the target and we are able to provide another defib outdoors, we will place this in another public place nearby with easy access.

This is my Christmas wish, to achieve our very own defib by the end of 2025 for both business and public use. Please help us reach our target!

Over the year I will be doing some fundraising events with the children and also my own personal targets, these will include:

Games

Litter clean

Sell / donate toys

Carboot sales

Hiking

Collaborations with other businesses

Disco / Fun day

Thank you so much for reading,

Caitlin

The Flower Cottage