THE first of two public defibrillators bought by Malvern Town Council has now been installed outside St Mary’s Church in Sherrards Green Road.

Defibrillators in locked cabinets will be popping up all around Malvern over the next few years, with Malvern Town Council having purchased two units already.

Heartstart Malvern is the charity behind the initiative, and they aim to work towards getting 50 automated external defibrillators in public places throughout the town.

Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Worcestershire, the Hon Lady Morrison is patron to Heartstart, and braved the rain along with mayor Cynthia Palmer, Rev Lynne Sparkes of the church, and Heartstart coordinator Tony Palmer for the big reveal.

Richard Vakis-Lowe, Chairman of Heartstart Malvern, said: "“Heartstart Malvern would like to thank Malvern Town Council for buying this defibrillator and St Mary’s Church for allowing it to be installed on the church. We would like to hear from any other individuals or organisations that can help us achieve our target of installing 50 public access defibrillators around Malvern.”

Heartstart are now urging residents to get some free training to use the defibrillators. Anyone from age 11 up can be trained, and the more the better.

Mr Vakis-Lowe explained: “Installing this defibrillator could play an important part in saving someone’s life. However, to maximise the chance of a life being saved, we need to train as many local residents as we can in basic resuscitation skills. These skills are very easy to learn and anyone without any previous first-aid knowledge can learn these skills in less than two hours."

A person's chance of surviving a cardiac arrest will decrease by about ten per cent for every minutes which passes between the patient collapsing and them receiving a shock from a defibrillator. This is why it is essential to have more public access defibrillators located in the community.

Heartstart Malvern provides free resuscitation training, which includes how to use a defibrillator. Anyone interested in attending a training session should book a place by contacting heartstartmalvern.org.uk or 01684 342999.