FUNDRAISERS are spearheading a campaign to ensure emergency treatment is provided for anyone who suffers a heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest.

The Rotary Club of Newton Aycliffe has raised money to buy a Public Access Defibrillator and also plan to organise cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training to enable non medically qualified people to use it.

Rotarian Jill Thompson, who is leading the project, said: “Without help, a person can die in minutes from a severe heart attack or a cardiac arrest.

“According to the British Heart Foundation, every minute without CPR and or defibrillation reduces the chances of survival by ten per cent.”

Tesco has offered to house the defibrillator at the front of its Newton Aycliffe supermarket and to provide rooms for the CPR training.

Mrs Thompson said: “We’re most grateful to Tesco for their support.

“Being central and open almost 24 hours every day, the store is an ideal location for the defibrillator and because it will be housed inside the building, we do not have to provide vandal-proof casing for the equipment.”

Club members are planning an official handover and information event at the store in September when local people can sign up for the free CPR training.

Mrs Thompson said people may have some idea how to administer CPR, but be too afraid to.

The defibrillator is simple to use by the public, even without training, so a life could be saved while waiting for an ambulance, she added.

Rotary Club president Denese Cartwright said: ‘We have lost three highly-respected and long-standing members of Rotary this year through various heart problems.

“What better legacy could they leave to the community they loved than the chance to save a life?”