A healthcare manager in Sheffield is calling for more funding to ensure life-saving equipment is installed in public spaces across the city.
The LivingCare group, located at Canon Medical Arena in Sheffield, have decided to hold a raffle to raise money to put new defibrillators on the outside of their buildings at their Sheffield and Leeds locations.
There is a current crisis in the UK with the lack of available defibrillators in public spaces, as a lot of them are unregistered and remain unknown to emergency services, meaning they cannot be readily accessed in a cardiac emergency.
Luke Gorse, the business development manager at the LivingCare group, said: “They are nowhere near readily accessible enough to be sort of valuable.
“They are only as good as how long it takes to get to one.”
Defibrillation within three – five minutes of cardiac arrest can increase survival rates by 50-70%, being the most effective when used within the first minute of someone collapsing.
When asked if he believed there was a shortage of government funding for defibrillators, Mr Gorse said that: “There are not enough people making the time and putting the budget together, for the defibrillators, to help the community.”
Any extra money made in the raffle will be donated to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), which is a charity that is dedicated to preventing sudden cardiac deaths in young people.
Cry wants every young person to have the opportunity to have a heart screening, as one in 300 people that are tested by CRY will have a potentially life-threatening heart condition that often requires treatment and possible surgery.
The increase in the number of defibrillators in accessible places in public will help prevent the number of people that die from a sudden cardiac arrest, as Mr Gorse said that: “A ten minute jog is the last thing you want when someone is having a cardiac arrest.”
Deprived areas in particular in the UK lack access, as people in these areas are more likely to live further away from a defibrillator.
The raffle will be drawn on the 1st of April 2025, and can be found on their website: www.livingcare.co.uk.
To enter, donate £1 to the LivingCare group’s JustGiving page.
The prizes being offered include:
A Manchester United shirt signed by Alejandro Garnacho, a Leeds United signed shirt and a Sheffield United signed shirt.
A Sheffield Sharks signed basketball, 4 VIP courtside tickets to a Sheffield Sharks game and 4 standard tickets to a Sheffield Sharks game.
4 Sheffield Steelers tickets to a game of you choice.
