Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, founder of the CADEY campaign, welcomes the ticking off the list of two more communities which now have the benefit of life-saving public access defibrillators (PADs).
Beverley and Holderness had approximately 60 rural communities without a PAD when CADEY was founded in spring 2018 and the constituency is down to around 36 communities now that Skeffling and Elstronwick can be crossed off the list. The two Parish Councils benefitted from CADEY funding to help raise the money and Graham, accompanied by CADEY committee members Andrew Milner of Help for Health, Nick Middleton of the Smile Foundation and Warren Bostock of Yorkshire Ambulance Service, enjoyed a warm welcome when they visited the two communities on 4th October.
Mary Jane Barker, Elstronwick Parish Clerk said “The Parish Council are very grateful for the CADEY funding which helped us raise enough money for this potentially life-saving PAD on the wall at Yew Tree Farm, Elstronwick. Let’s hope we never have to use it but it’s a relief to have one in the village and now three in the Parish. It’s great that our MP, Graham, and the others from the CADEY committee have taken the time to come down to see the new defib in place to help raise awareness of its location, and it gave the Parish Council the opportunity to thank CADEY for its support.”
Councillor Richard Newsam, Chair of Skeffling Parish Council said “Graham had written to all Parish Councils alerting them to the possibility of getting some financial help through CADEY towards the cost of a PAD, which is how we knew about the CADEY funding. Applying for the CADEY funding for a public access defibrillator at the Village Hall was really easy – a lot easier than most grant applications – and Nick Middleton from the Smile Foundation couldn’t have been more helpful. We raised our half of the money by holding a Burns Night supper and Bonfire Night. Skeffling Parish Council is delighted to be part of the CADEY campaign and we urge any community without a PAD to contact our MP, Graham, to find out how to get one. You never know when you’ll need it and, if the worst happens, you’ll be very pleased to have one close at hand.”
Graham said “The CADEY committee is thrilled to welcome Skeffling and Elstronwick to the ever-increasing list of communities in Beverley and Holderness which host a public access defibrillator. There’s still more work to be done but CADEY is determined to see every single rural community have one of these essential life-saving devices. When someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest they have an 8% chance of survival. That is truly shocking. But we can help. If there’s a PAD nearby and it can be deployed on the patient by a bystander within a few minutes, it could save a life. So, if your community is yet to get a public access defibrillator please contact me and I’ll do what I can to assist.”
