Group raises £1,600 for defibrillator in Jarrow's West Park

The £1,600 needed to buy the defibrillator and its accessories was raised by the West Park Community Group.

It took them just six months to secure the money and the equipment now hangs in the park in Jarrow.

The driving forces behind the fundraising for the life saving kit were the group’s chairperson Alison Docherty and treasurer Suzanne Oliver.

They reached their target with help from Jarrow Bowling Club, local businesses, private donations and a JustGiving page. They also organised coffee mornings.

Should anyone ever need to use the defibrillator, they will find it on the wall of the bowling club in the centre of West Park.

Alison and Suzanne are delighted to have secured the equipment and very grateful to everyone who was able to help out.

Alison said: “It’s available for anyone to use if necessary. If you ring 999 they’ll tell you to go and use it while you wait for an ambulance. It can also be used on a child; although hopefully never.

“It’s kept opposite the ‘football mugger’ (multi-sports field) as it’s known. We’d like to say a big thank you to the Jarrow Bowling Club who were a huge help, particularly John Cullen who raised £500 from Sober for October. But we’d also like to thank everyone who donated.”

The West Park Community group is already planning ahead to their party in West Park in August. The group’s 2021 event attracted an estimated some 2,000 people of all ages.

The defibrillator is the latest of a number of the live-saving devices to be installed across South Tyneside in recent months, with awareness campaigns and events in the news raising the profile of their importance.

This was perhaps most prominent in the Euros in summer 2021, when Denmark's Christian Eriksen collapsed during as he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Defibrillators restore a normal heartbeat by sending an electric pulse or shock to the heart. They are used to prevent or correct a heartbeat that is uneven, too slow or too fast, or restore the heart’s beating if it suddenly stops.

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