_{This is our fundraising page for Donate for Defib Weston-Super-Mare in partnership with the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC), where you can chip into the pot (or put on your own fundraiser!) and support the work of our local air ambulance charity at the same time.}

_{The team behind the project:}

Senior Management Team - all roles are voluntary. 

Josh Bell  - Co-Leading Partner of The Donate For Defib Weston-Super-Mare Project 

Josh is a Student Paramedic and Co-founded the project. Josh supports the day-to-day operations of the work and supports with the emails, operational status and project management. 

Tom Farrand - Co-Leading Partner of The Donate For Defib Weston-Super-Mare Project 

Tom supports and leads the project and is running the TCS London Marathon in April 2024 to raise funds for further Defibrillators within our local community. 

Christina Chell - Sponsorship & Grants Representative of The Donate For Defib Weston-Super-Mare Project

Christina is a Registered Nurse and looks after any Grants / Sponsorship available for the project and also supports both Co-Leading Partners with emails, operational status, various schemes that the project has running and also liaising with the team at Great Western Air Ambulance Charity..

Elizabeth Bell - Volunteer Lead of The Donate For Defib Weston-Super-Mare Project

Liz supports the day to day operations along with fundraising events as the project expands and drive for more volunteers to join the tea. Liz will be  supporting the volunteers in their new roles along with various other schemes that we have linked to Great Western Air Ambulance including education, recruitment, day-to-day operations. 

John Bell - Maintenance Contracting Lead of The Donate For Defib Weston-Super-Mare Project

John will arrange and coordinate installation of new Defibrillators with the electrical teams and contractors that we have as our proud sponsors who volunteer to install our defibrillators. John also supports at our fundraising events and enables the successful installation of our defibrillators and also enables that if there is a maintenance issue within our Project Office, he is often able to fix the problems.  

Peter Elston - Project Lead Ambassador of The Donate For Defib Weston-Super-Mare Project

Peter is our Project Lead Ambassador who coordinates and liases with local press, companies, organisations and supporters / proud sponsors. Peter is also a professional photographer and supports the project by also doing photographs for the team at events / conferences and arranges meetings with companies and supporters. 

Jay Isaac - Website & Social Media Lead of The Donate For Defib Weston-Super-Mare Project

Jay supports the project, by creating and updating our Social Media & Website. He is currently a college student in Bristol, but supports us in his spare time. He has a talent for Social Media / Website Design and is an asset to the Team. His dad, Andy is the owner of The George & Dragon Pub in Weston and they have installed a defibrillator and enabled this to be publicly accessible, which is a great achievement.

Aardvark AVO Electricians

Huge thanks to Matt and Dan from Aardvark AVO Electricians who are kindly installing the defibrillator cabinets for free, as a wonderful contribution to this project. 

AMS Electrical  

Huge thanks too to this company who are also supporting the team to install more defibrillators around Weston.

Prof. Graham Stuart, Consultant Cardiologist

Adding professional credibility to the project, Prof. Graham Stuart, a consultant cardiologist, was welcomed to the team in December 2023.

As the project's clinical lead ambassador, he offers important clinical insight, and latest research to further inform the project's work.

How you can help

_{We are currently raising funds by undertaking fundraising events and asking local businesses and groups to donate.}

_{And we hope that you can make a donation through this page.}

_{Our goal:}

_{There are not enough defibrillators in the local community of Weston-Super-Mare and it is vital that a defibrillator is accessible for anyone at any one time. So we’re raising money to fund public access defibrillators, to get as many installed as we can and hopefully ensure that every pub has one or has one very near by.  We need your help to help make this possible. A cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at anytime and with awful survival rates in this country, we can do something about this.}

_{CPR & defibrillation before an ambulance arrives can increase the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest from one in 10 to seven in 10.}

_{So, to reduce avoidable and needless deaths our goal is that anyone who suffers a cardiac arrest will receive immediate CPR and then defibrillation within five minutes. Each 1-minute delay decreases their survival chances by another 10 percent, so defibrillators need to be close by, publicly available and used.}

 

_{Can you help us raise £1705 for each defibrillator?}

_{Along with our public defibrillators, we can continue to raise funds towards the ongoing consumables necessary to keep them rescue ready and any surplus funds will go towards supporting the excellent work of GWAAC.}

_{This extraordinary team of doctors and advanced paramedics respond to the 1% of 999 calls where sending the skill and equipment of a hospital Emergency Department to the patient can save lives. Going to the most serious medical and trauma incidents in Bristol, South Glos, Gloucestershire, North Somerset and B&NES means the team respond to a huge volume of cardiac arrests. In fact, around 25% of their jobs are to this medical emergency.}

_{But they receive no day to day Government funding or National Lottery support.}

_{So let’s dig deep and give what we can to help fund not only our own public access defibrillators accross Weston but the subsequent care GWAAC can provide those suffering a cardiac arrest and anyone experiencing their worst day.}

_{For more information about the defibrillator package: https://greatwesternairambulance.com/what-we-do/aed/}