A woman’s crusade to install public access defibrillators across Norfolk and Suffolk has seen the 75th lifesaving device installed.
On Saturday morning Jayne Biggs, who runs the Heart 2 Heart charity, officially unveiled her latest defibrillator at The Dining Room on Great Yarmouth seafront.
Mrs Biggs decided to install it the seafront as the only other outside one along the Golden Mile is a Heart 2 Heart one at the Marina Centre.
The owner of The Dining Room, Chris Church, agreed to have one installed after Mrs Biggs talked to him while having breakfast at the nearby Merrivale Model Village which he also owns.
Most of the funds for the 75th defibrillator came from Caister Christmas lights organisers Barry and June Cockrill, who organised collection buckets for Heart 2 Heart and also the children’s bereavement charity Nelson’s Journey.
Mrs Biggs, from Bradwell, set up the charity in 2016 after her daughter, Violet, suffered a cardiac arrest when she was seven-years-old.
She and her husband performed CPR for seven minutes before paramedics arrived and used a defibrillator, saving her life.
Mrs Biggs said: “I decided to have another defibrillator as the only other public access defibrillator on the seafront is at the Marina Centre. There is a lack of them.”
It was the last time that Mr and Mrs Cockrill organised their fundraising Caister Christmas lights event and they were pleased to be able to help Heart 2 Heart on their final quest to bring festive magic to their village.
Mrs Cockrill said: “We just wanted to help a local charity and we are just pleased we were able to help Jane.”
Ben Turner, deputy manager at The Dining Room, said: “It is a really good idea to have defibrillators as they do save people’s lives.”
Mrs Biggs thanked Peter Cooke for installing the device for free.
In June staff at the Great Yarmouth & Gorleston Sailing Club were able to use a Heart 2 Heart defibrillator installed at the back of the Pier Hotel to save the life of man who collapsed.
Mrs Biggs now plans to install a defibrillator in Cromer.
For information on Heart 2 Heart search for it on Facebook.
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