An abundance of defibrillators has been installed in areas all across the UK recently, providing essential lifesaving equipment to towns and villages. Many of these are far away from hospitals and ambulance services, so the installation of defibrillators in such places means that time and lives can be saved.

Many of these defibrillators have been bought with funds raised from local community groups, which makes their acquisition of them even more admirable.

In Tavistock, Devon, members of the Athletic Club held a running event on their local track, with every entrant aiming to run a mile. They followed this up with a quiz night, in total raising £1,040 towards the defibrillator for Tavistock Sports Centre and Tavistock College.

Runners in Rosliston, Derbyshire have also played their part in providing a defibrillator for use in their local community. The Rosliston Parkrun group donated £800 to help install a defibrillator at the Rosliston Forestry Centre, their weekly meeting point. They are now hoping to raise more money to buy a heated cabinet for the machine, which will protect it from the cold and maintain its efficacy.

Meanwhile in Wales, the Community Shop in Pencoed, Mid Glamorgan, raised £1,500 to provide a defibrillator to their local First Response team. Previously, the lifesaving team, consisting of two volunteers trained by the Welsh Ambulance Service, only had access to a defibrillator once a week on a Sunday, borrowing the equipment from Bridgend.

The efforts made to raise money for defibrillators serves to demonstrate how important this equipment is to people and their communities.