Bilton has a new defibrillator at the Village Hall thanks to Mid Holderness Councillor Samantha Christon-Whyte and CADEY (Community Access Defibrillators for East Yorkshire), the organisation set up by Graham Stuart MP to provide rural communities with life-saving defibrillators.
The thirteenth CADEY-funded defibrillator came about thanks to a call from Cllr Samantha Christon-Whyte to Graham, who founded CADEY in 2018.
Bilton’s previous defibrillator, provided by ASDA, was broken and the Parish Council was struggling to raise funds to replace the defibrillator.
Cllr Christon-Whyte had supported Graham’s CADEY campaign over the years and knew the committee would be able to support the village.
CADEY has installed defibrillators in Elstronwick, Hornsea, Hedon, Mappleton, Molescroft, Skeffling, South Dalton, Sunk Island, Thearne, Thorngumbald, West Newton and Woodmansey.
Thanks to CADEY, as well as other organisations and government support, Beverley and Holderness is the first parliamentary constituency with full coverage, achieved thanks to communities up and down East Yorkshire with the expert guidance of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service which has identified defibrillator ‘black spots’.
Defibrillator coverage is important in rural areas like Beverley and Holderness due to the distance between communities. When someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest, the chances of survival reduce by 10% for every minute the heart isn’t restarted.
Defibrillators can be used without any training and can be accessed following a call to 999. They can buy vital minutes while the patient awaits an ambulance
Graham said, “We set up CADEY with a simple aim: to be the first constituency in the UK to have complete defibrillator coverage.
“I’m proud to say that we are now the first rural constituency with full defibrillator coverage, and I’m so grateful to everyone who has supported these life-saving devices.
“These are examples of communities coming together to save lives, and I’m beyond grateful to Cllr Christon-Whyte for bringing this one to my attention.”
Cllr Samantha Christon-Whyte (Con, Mid Holderness) said, "We needed a new defibrillator in Bilton, and I'm so grateful Graham and the CADEY committee were able to step up and provide us with one!
"Politics is about getting stuff done for local people and it's great that Bilton will be that much safer for everyone who lives here than it used to be."
