IT IS hoped more lives will saved after three defibrillator units were bought for a Teesside town.

The Hartlepool branch of the British Heart Foundation raised £6,000 for the units and donated them to the town. One has gone to the Mill House Leisure Centre, another to the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre and the third to the Headland area of town.

Staff at the Mill House centre have already been trained to use the equipment.

They will be able to give immediate assistance to anyone in the building and, if it is thought vital seconds could be saved, they may be contacted by the Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service to rush to the immediate area outside to help someone suffering a heart attack.

Joan Wynn, facilities manager at the Mill House Leisure Centre, said: "Our staff are very well qualified in first aid already, but we are extremely pleased to have been given this equipment.

"A year ago we lost a man in his 70s who had been very fit, but had a heart attack.

"I'm not saying this would have saved him, but it means a lot to us to have this unit."

Ms Wynn said that the centre was expecting 362,500 visits to the leisure centre this year, many by people who take strenuous exercise.