Finchampstead is increasing its community of lifesavers thanks to the funding it has received from the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Resilient Communities Fund.
The SSEN grant of over £3,300 has enabled Finchampstead Parish Council to purchase two defibrillators and run related training courses through Heartstart Swallowfield, supporting a further 22 residents from the Berkshire village to learn the skills needed to save a life.
It's not the first time that Finchampstead Parish Council has used SSEN's Resilient Communities Fund to make a difference to those who live and work in the local area, having used previous successful applications to the SSEN fund to provide the local community with CPR training courses.
Katy Dagnall from Finchampstead Parish Council explains why the courses and equipment are vital to their rural residents: "Since 2015 we have provided five community accessible defibrillators for the Parish, including two as a result as the grant from SSEN for which we are very grateful. These devices are potentially life-saving and we felt it was essential to try and provide them at locations around the community for the benefit of our residents."
"While community defibrillators are designed to be used without any training, we think it is helpful to offer training as this brings a degree of confidence to their use in a potentially difficult situation. Thankfully, none have had to be used to date but you never know when the need might arise and having the equipment and the skills needed to save a life is essential in a rural area that could become difficult for emergency services to access in severe weather."
Danielle Royce, SSEN's Deputy Head of Region for the area covering Finchampstead, added: "We're delighted that this latest round of fund has brought further resilience and reassurance to one of our local communities, by helping even more of its residents to gain the skills needed to save a life."
"While we hope they never need to use these skills - or the defibrillators they have installed across the Parish - the comfort this brings to a community can't be underestimated."
Applications for the latest round of funding from the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Resilient Communities Fund are now open across central southern England, with up to £20,000 available to charities and local groups who wish to undertake a resilience project to help protect their communities in the event of an emergency.
Guidelines and applications forms are available on SSEN's website: www.ssen.co.uk/RCF/England/.
The closing date for applications is Tuesday 15 May 2018, with awards being made in autumn 2018.