Jarrow pub purchases two defibrillators for community after fundraiser sparked by Christian Eriksen Euro 2020 collapse shock

The Red Hackle on the Scotch Estate in Jarrow thanked residents for their generous contributions, with an online fundraiser pulling in more than £1,600 in under a week.

Professional footballer Christian Eriksen’s shock collapse during a Euro 2020 group-stage match between Denmark and Finland brought the provision of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) into sharp focus.

Lee Hughes who runs the popular community pub, said the international midfielder’s cardiac arrest had galvanised the venue into launching a drive it had been planning since the back end of 2020.

The devices are due to be registered in the area over the coming weeks and the charity London Hearts, aided by the British Heart and Lung Foundation, will be offering a free defibrillator training service for residents once Covid restrictions are fully lifted.

"The discussion for some time was that there needed to be a defibrillator for the Scotch Estate and surrounding area because there’d been a lack of them,” Mr Hughes said.

“A couple of weeks ago it was raised again with Eriksen at the Euros, so we decided to start a GoFundMe page.

"My son set up the page and, within six days, we’d hit the target of £1,675.”

The fundraising push follows a number of separate community efforts to boost the provision of publicly-available defibrillators in the borough – several of them supported by regional heart health charity, the Red Sky Foundation.

Installations at a Boldon post office, a South Shields park and a popular Stanhope Road pub have helped address the relative shortage of the potentially life-saving devices in South Tyneside.

It is thought that an AED intervention within the first three minutes of a sudden cardiac arrest can increase a victim’s chances of survival by around 80 percent.

Between April 2018 and November 2019, there were 5,710 recorded sudden cardiac arrests across the North East. Bystander CPR was provided in only 1,614 of those cases and just 285 of those people survived to later be discharged from hospital.

“If you go down south, almost every street corner has one – so it’s well overdue we get some in place here,” Mr Hughes added.

"That said, we’re hoping it’s £1,600 pound of money that’s not used – well-spent, obviously, but hopefully not used.”

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