Defibrillator installed at Snowley Parade after Parsonage estate community rallies with fundraising
Community action and a little help from a county councillor’s budget has led to a defibrillator being installed at a shopping parade in Bishop’s Stortford.
The device, used to control heart fibrillation by application of an electric current to the chest wall or heart, has been sited on the wall of J E Williamson Chemist at 1 Snowley Parade on the Parsonage estate. It was officially unveiled on Friday (Mar 8).
Funding came from Cllr Calvin Horner, the Herts County Council member for Bishop’s Stortford East, along with Managed Solutions from the Community Heartbeat Trust.
There were also cash donations from individuals and money was raised from Parsonage Residents’ Association’s (PRA) pre-loved stall and tombola at the Parsonage Hall Christmas Fayre.
PRA chair Deborah Munro said: “The PRA would like to thank all those members of the community who supported us to install this defib, which is available 24/7.
“We are very grateful to Cllr Horner for agreeing to release funds from his budget to pay for this important equipment.”
The idea for the defibrillator came when PRA vice chair and Parsonage resident Colin Woodward, a former county, district and town councillor, met a nurse whose original plan was for it to be sited in the vacant phone box. It was later agreed it would be installed outside the chemist.