PEOPLE living in Evesham are being asked to collect their copper coins in 2025 and donate them to a local charity on a mission to save lives.
Paramedic Kerry Wood, founder of Evesham Defibrillators, is urging residents and businesses to help raise funds for the maintenance of the numerous automated external defibrillator (AED) devices installed around town.
Annually this costs £500 per unit and additionally, over the next five years, the AEDs will need new batteries and electrode pads.
She said: “Pennies make pounds. We have 29 defibrillators now and need to ensure these can be maintained for the foreseeable future.”
The call comes after the location of the latest piece of life-saving equipment to be installed was announced at the home of Zoltan Kalmar and family at Hazel Avenue, in the south east area of town.
Taking to Facebook she thanked Zoltan and urged people living within 500 metres to familiarise themselves with its location as they ‘might need to access this one day’.
She also thanked Tom Bates at TDB Electrical Services for fitting the device free of charge.
Kerry, who works for West Midlands Ambulance Service, set up Evesham Defibrillators in 2021 to install AEDs on people’s homes when as a student paramedic she realised it could take 40 minutes to transport patients in cardiac arrest to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
A cardiac arrest happens when someone’s heart stops and statistically, an individual experiencing one has only a six per cent survival rate. This, however, rises to between 50 and 70 per cent if they are promptly treated (shocked) with an AED.
Copper coins can currently be dropped into collection buckets at the following locations: The Valkyrie Bar, Orton Lounge, Tesco Petrol Station (Cheltenham Road), Posh Plaice (Davies Road), Co-op (Davies Road) and Hampton Social Club.
More drop off points to be announced shortly.
Visit sja.org.uk for emergency advice on using AEDs.
