Hand on Heart campaign off and running!

Abingdon & Witney College are aiming to raise enough money to buy four external defibrillators to be fitted on each of the College’s main sites, bringing an essential emergency service to the local community.

The Hand on Heart campaign is part of a wider effort to increase the network of these potentially life-saving machines to a national level.

It is the brainchild of John Revis, who is the Safety and Health Manager at the College: “I had been thinking about a fundraising project that could benefit our own students but more importantly the wider community and that’s where the idea to put defibrillators on the college grounds really came from”.

The campaign is also supported by the British Heart Foundation. Lowri Gerrard, from BHF Oxfordshire, said: “The campaign will not only put four defibrillators on college grounds but they will also be close to sports facilities, local schools and housing.

It will also raise awareness of the need to get more adults trained in CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation to give it its formal name.”

The campaign has got off to a running start with a donation of £400 from The Abingdon Marathon, who used the College’s facilities back in October for the 2018 marathon.