A group of lifesavers are preparing to share their know-how with residents of Donside.
Donside Defibrillators Group was set up to raise awareness of the role of public access defibrillators (PADS) in a cardiac arrest, and to give local communities the necessary training to save lives along with it.
So far the group – set up after the success of a similar one in Deeside last year – has managed to install the devices in Monymusk and at Tullynessle and Forbes Hall.
They also plan to install more at Alford, Bellabeg, Glenkindie and Kemnay.
And to get them up and running, the team from the highly successful Deeside group – including members of the Tarland and Mid Deeside Community First Responders – will share their knowledge at a training session next week.
The group believe it is crucial as communities as possible have access to the devices, as it can take more than the ambulance in Alford longer than the “ideal” 10 minutes to reach someone suffering a heart attack.
“Early intervention in cardiac arrest with the use of defibrillators backed by CPR can save lives. Fact.”
Alicia Murray, treasurer of Donside Defibrillators Group, added: “Although we have an ambulance service in Alford itself to cover the whole of the north-east they could well be in out of a shout if someone here was to have a heart attack.
“The area of Donside covers a huge area and an ambulance is not going to get out to us in the ideal 10 minute timeframe to get resuscitation so it is important to cover that gap.”
A scheme to provide the public access defibrillators in Deeside proved far more popular than anticipated last year, with 15 defibrillators installed for public use.
Ms Murray said: “They are coming along next Wednesday to train our first batch of people to show us how it is done and then we will take it from there.
“We have been liaising with them and speaking with them because they have made that work on Deeside and we are trying to replicate that on Donside.”
The first session of CPR training will take place in Tullynessle and Forbes Hall from 7pm-10pm on Wednesday.
For more information call Ms Murray on 01975 581142 or Edna Mathew on 01975 562309.
