New life-saving equipment has been installed at a holiday park in Norfolk after “generous” visitors helped fund the project.
(Left to right) Barney residents with councillor Steff Aquarone and David Moore, managing director of the Old Brick Kilns Caravan and Camping Park with the newly installed defibrillator. Picture: TIGGY MOOREA public access defibrillator has been welcomed by staff at Old Brick Kilns Caravan and Camping Park in Barney, near Fakenham.
It was bought with funds raised by visitors throughout 2017 and was officially unveiled yesterday, on Saturday April 14, ahead of the new holiday season.
David Moore, the park’s managing director, said: “We can have over 250 visitors on site during high-season and we thought it was important to make this our priority fundraising campaign for 2017.
“The generosity of our visitors was hugely appreciated and it helped us to purchase this automated external defibrillator which will be available to all our visitors as well as the local community in Barney.
“Being in a rural location means that it can take longer for health professionals to get to us, so having a defibrillator on site could well make a difference should the worst happen.”
North Norfolk MP, Norman Lamb, who was scheduled to do the unveiling, was unable to attend due to his recent stroke. Instead Steffan Aquarone, county councillor for Melton Constable, stepped in to help.
He said: “As Norman found out two weeks ago, you never know when it might happen to you, but with this sort of technology, people in Barney can be sure that life-saving equipment is here, should they need it.”
Mr Moore said there would be weekly checks on the equipment to ensure everything was in order.
He added: “Our full-time staff will receive training from the Community HeartBeat Trust on how to use it, although it is fully-automated and a voice prompts every step-by-step action required.“
The unit will also be registered with the HeartSafe website which logs locations of community defibrillators.
A training session for up to 50 people is being offered at the Old Brick Kilns, by a HeartSafe representative at 3pm on Thursday, April 26.
Anyone interested in attending can call the office on 01328 878305 to register their interest.
