Sussex charity offers to pay for four live-saving defibrillators

More than 100 people took part in last year's sponsored walk Picture by Peter R Hawkes SUS-140307-085400001

Cardiac Rehab Support West Sussex (CRSWS) is a charity working to make sure public venues around the county have access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs).

The charity is holding a sponsored walk along Worthing seafront to help by new defibrillators.

A spokesman for the charity said: “Anyone can suffer a cardiac arrest and it can happen anywhere. But the timely application of an

AED can dramatically improve your survival chances by getting your heart going again until the ambulance arrives.”

CRSWS is offering to refund the cost of purchasing an AED, which normally costs £1,000, to the first four local organisations which approach them.

Steve Hodder, a trustee of Cardiac Rehab Support West Sussex, said: “I collapsed with a cardiac arrest on London Bridge railway station eight years ago. If it had not been for a member of staff putting a defibrillator on my chest, I would not be alive today.”

CRSWS was set up by a group of ex-patients and their carers to support the work of the Cardiac Rehab Department at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The charity helps fund exercise classes and information sessions for heart patients.

It provides defibrillators for fitness trainers, gives grants so NHS staff can attend training courses and, makes sure leaflets are freely available for cardiac patients.

To raise money for their work, Cardiac Rehab Support West Sussex will be holding their 11th annual sponsored Fun Walk along Worthing seafront on June 20.

More than 100 former cardiac patients and their families are getting ready to set off from Sea Lane Cafe, Goring-by-Sea, and hope to raise over

£10,000 to assist the increasing number of patients of all ages in West Sussex who are suffering – or recovering – from a heart condition.

Find out more at www.cardiacrehabsupport.org.uk or write to CRSWS, 4 Highdown Drive, Littlehampton, West

Sussex BN17 6HJ.

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