The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
The group behind plans to install 24 hour access defibrillators throughout Ennis may not just be helping to save lives, but they could also be breaking records.
The fundraising committee have now raised enough money to buy four difibrillators which will shortly be placed in key locations throughout the town. The Clare Red Cross are now calling on people to sign up for training, with the hope that they can enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people trained to use the potentially life saving equipment.
Ennis Town Councillor Paul O’Shea spearheaded the campaign for the potentially life saving equipment in recent months. And he has been joined in fundraising by Irish Red Cross Clare Area, Ennis Chamber of Commerce and other business and community groups.
Councillor O’Shea, chairman of the committee, told us, “Each defibrillator costs €2,300 and the committee have raised enough money to buy four units. This fund raising project has been exceptionally successful, we can’t believe that in these hard times, that we are now in a position to purchase four units.
“The generosity of the Clare public is astounding, money continues to be donated on a daily basis. A leading water company has pledged to donate 5c on every bottle of their water towards additional defribillators. We are now considering rolling out these devices to every town and village in county Clare. In addition, Ennis is in the process of achieving the status of ‘Heart Safe Town’ the much coveted award from the Irish Heart Foundation.
“We have applied to the Guinness book of world records, to hold the record of most people trained in the use of defibrillators. We have 40 trained instructors who have come forward to assist with training to attain the record.”
The Irish Red Cross Clare Area have now opened a website for the public to sign up for training at www.clareredcross.ie.
According to a spokesperson for the Irish Red Cross in Clare, “We are proud to be part of the Ennis
Community defibrillator project as a group community defibrillation is a large part of what we do. To date we have delivered CPR/AED Defibrillation training to over 20 voluntary groups throughout Clare and have trained over 400 people in the use of defibrillators in Clare alone and thousands nationally. We are delighted to be involved with training for local men and women of our county town Ennis. All the training will be delivered free and any follow up training and retraining will also be delivered free by our PHECC and FETAC accredited instructors.”
The idea for the fundraising campaign first began in February when Councillor O’Shea proposed that Ennis Town Council install a 24/7 defibrillator in the centre of town. He was informed that this is not in the council’s remit. The meeting was told that Ennis Town Council currently has three defibrillators. One is located in the customer service office of Ennis Town Council, one in Ennis Leisure Complex and one in Lees Road. The HSE further informed the councillor that there is a defibrillator in Clare County Council’s headquarters.
“These venues have closing times and are useless for those who would require them in the town centre as they are situated too far away,” he said.
“It is unacceptable that Ennis, which is the largest town in Munster, does not have a defibrillator available in our town centre for the general public. We cannot wait around for someone to die because no one will take responsibility for supplying these life saving devices. If it saves one life then its money well spent.”
