HIGHWORTH Lions member Rosemary Jackson believes every town should have a defibrillator installed as it could save a life.

And yesterday the 80-year-old spent the morning educating residents who gathered at the community centre on how to use the four devises in the area, if a medical emergency arose.

The Lions have spent £10,000 getting the defibrillators installed, the first being around four years ago outside the council offices, this was then followed by one outside the police station, the community centre and most recently The Plough. One of which was funded by an anonymous donation of £2,000.

“We felt there was a need for it,” said Rosemary, who has been a lion member for ten years in Highworth and 24 years elsewhere.

“We had some money and thought it was the best way to spend it. We heard about a young kid having a heart attack on the football pitch and we though if that happened here we should get a defibrillator.”

Since they have been installed, the defibrillators have been taken out the box twice as a precaution but not used. However Rosemary has found a lot of people are clueless to how to use them which prompted her to organise the event.

“People would stop me and say we’ve got four defibrillators, that’s great, but no one knows how to get into the boxes,” Rosemary added.

“What happens when you need them is you ring the ambulance and they will tell you where the nearest defibrillator is, as well as the number to open it because if everyone knew the number there would be no defibrillator.

“So I thought to myself I should give more information and put posters up around the town. We had tea, coffee and some beautiful cakes at the demonstration, which was all free. There were 12 people and I might do it again because a lot of people are at work.”

During the presentation Jonathan Hardwick-Smith, assistant community responder officer at South Western Ambulance Service, showed a video on what to do when someone collapses and used members of the audience to demonstrate the resuscitation process.

“Always ring 999 first of all,” added Rosemary. “When you get there make sure everything around you is clear and get down on your knee and try and wake them up. If you can’t get a response put your cheek to their mouth and check if they are breathing and put them in the recovery position, all the points were really well explained.

“Everyone thanked me after and said they learnt a lot and that they would be confident in knowing what to do. They can then take that back to tell other people.”