Kingsley College latest school to get defibrillator as part of camapaign to save young lives (From Redditch Advertiser)
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Kingsley College latest school to get defibrillator as part of camapaign to save young lives
10:00am Saturday 1st September 2012 in News
A CAMPAIGN by a Redditch couple to help save young lives is continuing and shows no sign of slowing down.
Robert Underwood and wife Maggie have fundraised tirelessly to get defibrillators in all Redditch schools since the death of their teenage daughter, Charlotte, from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS), in 2010.
They have already made sure that the lifesaving equipment has been installed in a number of schools and recently attended a parliamentary reception at the House of Commons to help highlight the
importance of defibrillators in schools.
Kingsley College is now one of those schools thanks to the couple's fundraising through charity SADS UK, together with a donation by Jaguar Land Rover.
West Midlands Ambulance Service staff will carry out the training.
Mr Underwood said: “We are pleased that Kingsley College will benefit from having this potentially lifesaving equipment in place.
“We know how important it is to safeguard children and we continue to do this in memory of our daughter Charlotte who died at the age of only 16.”
He added: “We want to make it law that all schools should have a defibrillator to stop any other families going through such heartache and devastation of losing a loved one, just as we have.”
A defibrillator is the only piece of equipment that will restore the heart rhythm.
If a person goes into cardiac arrest it is crucial that the person is administered a therapeutic shock delivered by the defibrillator as quickly as possible.
This gives the person the best chance of survival.
Anne Jolly, Founder of SADS UK, said: “We are pleased that Kingsley College will now benefit from having a defibrillator on the premises.
“If CPR is used it gives a person a five per cent chance of survival, but coupled with using the defibrillator it increases the chance of survival to 50 per cent.”
