A NEW Okehampton charity is looking to provide five public access defibrillators around the town following a cheque presentation to help with their cause.

Members of various local organisations, charities and businesses attended the presentation to a new Okehampton Charity called Okehampton PADs (Public Access Defibrillators).

Trustees of the charity Joe Rice and James Stevens met at a first aid training course run by Joe, who is also a firefighter. It was there that discussions started about the benefits of defibrillators and CPR as treatment for those who go into cardiac arrest.

Statistically the chance of survival increases from 7-8% to 50-70% with the intervention of a defibrillator and good quality CPR. With an increasing demand on the ambulance service, there could be a considerable time where a member of the public will be the only person available to administer first aid.

Darren Goodwin, a critical care paramedic, came on board as a trustee in the new charity. Together with Joe and James they lodged applications with various organisations for funding with the target of obtaining enough funding to install five public access defibrillators, and just as importantly, provide regular training sessions that are free to the public.

There have been grants from organisations including Okehampton Rotary Club, Okehampton Lions, Okehampton Round Table, the town council, Okehampton United Charities, Aims Accountants and a personal donation from the ex-nurses of Okehampton Hospital who donated money instead of sending Christmas cards.

The total raised to date is £7,632. This is enough to obtain five defibrillators and commence initial training sessions but more funding will be needed to continue with the upkeep and training.

Where to position the defibrillators is of paramount importance. The trustees of the charity have been studying the best locations to cover as vast an area as possible while also having to consider the logistics of electrical supplies, owners permissions and visibility.

Locations will be promoted to the public very soon through different outlets including the Okehampton Times and social media.

One of the locations intended was Exeter Road Industrial Estate, to try to cover the modern surrounding developments and the businesses within the area.

Within the last week, Exeter Road based business Elemental Microanalysis Ltd have funded and installed a defibrillator that has been mounted on the outside of their building and is available to the public 24 hours a day.

This amazing public donation has enabled Okehampton PADs to consider another location for one of the five defibrillators covering even more of the town’s population.

The installations, which will hopefully commence in March, include an illuminated box containing the defibrillator and the other items necessary. This must be done by an electrician.

Louis Enderson of Enderson Phillips Electrical Ltd has already installed the defibrillator on the building of Elemental Microanalysis and has kindly offered to install others where possible and at no cost to the charity.

Okehampton PADs are keen to engage with the local community.

Awareness on the positioning of the defibrillator equipment, confidence in using them and giving CPR is fundamental to their success so they urge as many people as possible to attend the training when the dates of the courses become public.

The training sessions will be hosted in various locations to make it as accessible as possible.

The Ockment Centre has kindly hosted one of these at no cost to the charity and there have been numerous offers from other venues.

More information can be found by following the Okehampton PADs Facebook page www.facebook.com/Okepads