HEARTSTART Malvern has just installed its 34th life-saving defibrillator.

The defibrillator was donated to Heartstart Malvern by QinetiQ and has been installed at Elgar Court Care Home in Saint Andrews Road, Malvern.

QinetiQ donated the defibrillator and its cabinet to Heartstart Malvern after the charity delivered lifesaving training to more than 120 of their employees earlier this year.

Nick Houghton (QinetiQ Head of Site) who participated the training said: “During the training session it become quite apparent what a difference performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and having a defibrillator readily available can make to the chances of someone surviving a cardiac arrest. As a thank you to the Heartstart Malvern volunteers for delivering the training, QinetiQ decided to donate a defibrillator and cabinet to the charity. We were delighted to hear that it has been installed at Elgar Court and will be available for the local community to use in an emergency.

Sarah Cadwallader, general manager at Elgar Court Care Home, said: ‘‘As a new care home, Elgar Court is extremely keen to do what we can to be a key support to our local community. We had no hesitation in allowing Heartstart Malvern to install its 34th defibrillator on our building as we know how important it is to have public access defibrillators available in the community.”

Heartstart Malvern’s Patron, Lucy Chenevix- Trench said: “On behalf of Heartstart Malvern, I would like to thank QinetiQ for accepting our offer to provide free training to so many of their employees, and for their most generous donation. We would also like to thank Elgar Court for allowing the defibrillator to be located on such a prominent position on the front of their home’.

“Heartstart Malvern has set some very ambitious targets to train at least 10,000 people and to install at least 50 public access defibrillators in Malvern before our 10th anniversary in 2027. To help us achieve both targets, we would encourage other local businesses to do exactly as QinetiQ have done and to consider offering Heartstart Malvern’s free training to their employees too.”

A recent article in the Malvern Gazette asking for more volunteer trainers proved very successful.

Heartstart Malvern chairman Richard Vakis-Lowe, said: “ We had 11 people express an interest even though we thought we would be lucky to get just two or three. Having so many people come forward is fantastic.”

For more information about Heartstart Malvern or to book a course, please visit www.heartstartmalvern.org.uk or call 07926 615812.