Very Good News!

Today we had some very good news.  The Lloyds bank community awards have finished and all the votes counted.  

We came first!!

We had 37.91% of all the votes received.  This means a cheque for £3,000 will be winging its way to the 'Heartbeat' account - enough to buy another defib' and cabinet.  Wonderful. As soon as the money arrives I shall be sending off an order.

Many, many, thanks to Lloyds Bank of Teignmouth who nominated us and all those who voted for 'Heartbeat' - we would not have got this award without you.

Also today two lovely ladies donated cards they had made - so, if you need any cards for birthdays etc, you know where to come.  Thank you to Tina (Teignmouth) and Patricia (Paignton) - they must have spent several hours making the cards and the sale of them will swell the funds.

So, what a lovely day this turned out to be.

Photographs of Unveiling

The following photographs were kindly supplied by Heather Davies

Shirley Brokenshaw and Richard Wiltshire (Vice Commodore)
getting ready for the unveiling of the community defibrillator
outside the yacht club in Eastcliff walk, Teignmouth

Keith Mason, guest of honour,  who kindly cut  the ribbon

Looks like Shirley is being bossy! (Probably)

Keith showing the inside of the cabinet with
the new defib' inside.  Similar to the one that saved his life

Mike Brokenshaw, bravely wearing pink, showing the
inside of the defib' to the supporters gathered outside the yacht club

21st November Unveiling of our first community defibrillator!

What an exciting day - our very first community defib' in its own secure cabinet, up and running.

On the right of the photograph is Richard Wiltshire who is Vice Commodore at the Yacht Club.  He held the ribbon whilst Keith Mason, centre, did the honours of the unveiling and cutting the ribbon.

You may have read about Keith in the local paper - he suffered an 'out of the blue' heart attack whilst playing at Teignmouth golf club, just a few weeks ago.

He survived thanks to a combination of a defibrillator in the club house, the presence of a cardiac nurse and the air ambulance.  Keith said "I was very lucky and I am supporting the provision of these machines"

What better person to do the unveiling than Keith - it just shows that even a fit and healthy person may need a defib'

Thank you to everyone who turned up at the unveiling - great to see you all there and we look forward to seeing you at the next one!  Raising funds for this has started.

Shirley

Invitation to you all

          ‘Heartbeat’

            Providing Community Defibrillators

You are invited to attend the unveiling of our     first community defib’ in Teignbridge

 This will take place on Thursday 21^st November 2pm outside the yacht club at Eastcliff Walk, Teignmouth TQ14 8TA

Community defibrillators (they restart your heart should it stop) are on the outside of buildings so that they are available 24/7.  They are locked in secure cabinets but a call to 999 will mean it can be opened and the defib’ used immediately – every minute is vital.  They save lives. 

 A press release has been sent out thanking everyone who has helped raise funds and is supporting ‘Heartbeat’.  In case they do not print the list here are some of them. Each and every one has helped in some way – donating money, books, items for auction and raffles etc.  A HUGE thank you to you all and to all those too numerous to mention here - you have made this possible.

 TCYC Gentleman’s coffee morning

Westlands Retirement home

Coastwatch

Hugh & Anne Buttonshaw

Neil & Marty Howell

Brian Renshaw

Members of TCYC 

Anne & Roger Williams

Neighbours Jacky, Hannah & friend

Sue Richardson

Tom Free

Kim Ratley of The Ship Inn

Liz Mogford

Framing Lot, Dawlish

James McMurray

Keith Mason

TAAG Centre

Matt Thomas SWAT

Riviera Printing

Dawlish Coasters Running Club

Carlton Players

Members of Walk this Way 

Joanna Sheen Ltd

Shirley x 

shirleyheartbeat@gmail.com

HOORAH!!

HOORAH!!

Our very first Community Defibrillator has been installed!

I had only ever seen a picture of the outside cabinet before so it was a surprise when this enormous box arrived and we unpacked it.  My goodness it is a heavy and tough piece of kit and looked like a weird UFO - bigger than it looked in the picture.

It took three men (thank you Ian, Reg and Mike) and several hours to install the beast.  Wiring had to be threaded through from the loft of the yacht club to the cabinet.  In cold weather the defib' pads inside are kept warm and ready for use, otherwise they would crystalise.  After all, when in need, there would not be time to stick them under ones armpits to warm them up!

This defib' is now up and running.  If you ever need to use it just ring 999 and you will be given the code to open the cabinet.

Our new Blog Website

Friday November 8th

Good News!

Hello everyone

At last I can put a blog on our 'Heartbeat' website - I  had to be shown how to do it and hopefully this will work!

Huge thanks to Sue who set the whole thing up -  I am in awe.  She said it was easy but I wouldn't have known where to start.  Using the pc for emails, designing etc - fine - but anything else I have to be shown.

The first community defib' is going to be situated outside the TCYC yacht club in the Eastcliff area of Teignmouth.  A community defibrillator is one that is available 24/7 for anyone to use. 

It is housed in a secure cabinet that has a keyboard on the front.  Several people will have the code to open the cabinet - Coastwatch, yacht club etc - anyone else rings 999 and the code will be given over the telephone.

We have had the defib' for a while but have been waiting a long time for the secure cabinet to arrive. Well at last it has!  Until now we had only seen pictures of the cabinet.  The actual thing is enormous!  Like a UFO and tough as old boots.

The suppliers said they had an exercise to try and break into a cabinet and three of them, with crowbars, hardly made a dent. So, it looks as though it will be very secure, weatherproof too.

The whole unit should be installed very soon - as soon as possible I hope. Once we have a date for this then we will invite all those who helped to make this possible (and anyone else who wants to come along) and have an 'unveiling' with press, and maybe local television).  Watch this space!

I will write another update very soon but I just want to see if this goes through first.  Also I want to learn how to attach photographs etc to make the site interesting to look at.  Onwards and upwards!

Thank you for looking.  Right - I shall press the Publish button now!

Shirley