A MUM from Rugby has continued her tireless work to bring life-saving equipment to the streets in memory of her son with the installation of a pioneering wind and solar-powered defibrillator.
The new equipment at Houlton is the first sustainably-powered defibrillator to be installed at a UK residential development site, and only the twelfth in the whole country.
It came about when the under-construction Houlton estate’s master developer Urban&Civic teamed up with The OurJay Foundation, a charity founded by Rugby woman Naomi Rees-Issitt following her son Jamie’s death from a cardiac arrest four years ago, when he was just 18.
The charity raises awareness of the importance of publicly accessible defibrillators and provides training in life-saving skills – and has so far installed over 190 defibrillators across Warwickshire and beyond.
Naomi said: “We are so grateful to the team at Urban&Civic for seeing Jamie’s legacy and inspiration and making sure we could achieve this vital piece of life saving equipment for the Houlton community.
“Heart safety is becoming so much more important to people and through our partnership with Urban&Civic, Houlton now has a defibrillator for every 300 units – this is very unique and we are very proud of this.”
She also thanked manufacturer Turtle Defib Cabinets for the sustainable defibrillator – ‘a fantastic idea’.
OurJay and Urban&Civic had already installed defibrillators at Houlton’s schools and village centre – but with another 4,000 homes still to build, the charity approached the developer to introduce the solar and wind powered solution.
The new defibrillators ensures a cabinet can be kept heated at any time – even when there is no electricity supply.
Sonia Nakra-Norman, Communications and Partnerships Manager at Urban&Civic, said: “It has been informative and inspiring to work with this local charity, and while we always hope not to have to use our defibrillators, they provide reassurance to our community and those working on our development sites.”
Turtle founder and MD Mike Dowson added: “Location and an electricity supply is no longer a barrier when it comes to being prepared for cardiac arrest emergencies, and we thank OurJay Foundation for championing this message.”
Visit https://tinyurl.com/yc7spb8f to watch a video of Naomi speaking about OurJay Foundation’s work and the new defibrillator.
Visit www.ourjay.org.uk to find out about and support the OurJay Foundation.
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
