An Ivybridge woman who had a public defibrillator fitted to her garage is urging more people to do the same.

Julie Nash lives at Crescent Gardens and explains what happened:

‘‘We decided to try and fund one because of a report on BBC Breakfast about the Oliver King Foundation [a UK Charity working to save lives by ensuring access to lifesaving defibrillators and training staff in CPR].

‘‘It piqued our interest and we thought that AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) should be all over the place.

‘‘We have a little local Facebook group so I asked if anyone was interested in helping fundraise for a community defib to go on our garage wall.

‘‘Our house is very easy to find, meaning so was the defib.’’

Six people came forward to help out

Julie continued: ‘‘One of the group has a father who was saved by a defib.

‘‘We contacted neighbours, begged, set up a bank account, begged a bit more. I wrote bids/emails to councils and businesses and quite quickly we raised enough to put the AED up.

‘‘We had a generous neighbour who’s an electrician who put it on the wall for free.

‘‘We eventually raised enough money to keep the AED going for its guaranteed life, 10 years.

They worked with the Community Heartbeat Trust who were the original group who kitted out telephone boxes with defibrillators.

They also fit out rugby clubs and cricket clubs and that’s how they heard about them.

Julie exlained: ‘‘We are really proud of this AED, the first privately hosted, funded and publicly available defib in Ivybridge.

‘‘We have registered it everywhere. I’d love the Town Council to have a plan for this to be replicated across Ivybridge as we need them all over the town, that’s why I was at the annual meeting recently.

‘‘To have a good chance of survival, you need to be with just a few minutes of one.

‘‘This was very much a team effort, despite it being hosted on our garage. ‘‘

Julie would like to thank Ivybridge Town Council, South Hams District Council, Devon County Council, Chapman Electrical and Ivor Jones & Co Ltd.

You can contact the Community Heartbeat Trust who are open on weekdays between 10am and 4pm on 0330 1243067 or leave a message.