The importance of public access defibrillators has been highlighted after a new life-saving piece of equipment installed on school fencing was used within days of it being unveiled. Within the first couple of weeks of a new accessible school defibrillator for public use being put up at a school in Carlton Colville, Lowestoft it came to the aid of a local. Over recent weeks three new pieces of life-saving equipment have been installed outside schools and on a town theatre in Lowestoft.
Last Friday, Jayne Biggs - of the Heart 2 Heart Norfolk charity - visited two Lowestoft-area schools to see how they had added defibrillators outside - making them available at all times for the community. For the past few years Ms Biggs, from Bradwell, has been ensuring people across Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft have access to a defibrillator – a device which saved the life of her daughter Violet after she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest when she was seven. Since running the charity she has placed more than 300 public access defibrillators across Norfolk and Suffolk.
Seeing the new equipment at Westwood Primary School on Westwood Avenue, Lowestoft and at Grove Primary on Framfield Road, Carlton Colville in Lowestoft, Ms Biggs said: "Both schools have put their defibrillators outside, so making them available 24/7 for the community - every school should be doing this. "There is no point in defibrillators being inside schools as when they are closed for school holidays, no one can get to that .
