Charity donates life-saving device for Jedburgh

A new public access defibrillator has been installed outside the Spar store in Lothian Road, Jedburgh, thanks to a donation from charity St John Scotland. Pictured are community councillor Georgiana Craster, Graham Watt (vestry secretary for St Johns Church), Alastair Hutton and Angela Scott, from the Spar store, who will be involved in defibrillator training.

Unveiling the life-saving device on Monday, the chair of St John Scotland’s group of volunteers in the south-east, Alasdair Hutton, said: “The record of life-saving by these devices has been startling and, along with a good knowledge of CPR, many more people are alive and well and living around the Borders and Scotland than would have been the case not that many years ago.”

He continued: “St John Scotland has been working in recent years to help install public access defibrillators in communities across the country.

“In the Borders, we realised that Jedburgh was lagging a little behind, so we thought it would be a good idea to donate a defib for the benefit of the local community here. We took local advice about where the community would prefer it to go, and the Lothian Road site was recommended.”

Every week around 70 people in Scotland have a cardiac arrest. For every minute that someone goes without treatment, their chances of survival reduces by 10%, so performing CPR and using a defibrillator within the first few minutes of collapse can make the difference between life and death.

The defibrillator can be used by any member of the public with no prior training, and is available to be used 24/7 in an emergency.

z Pictured are community councillor Georgiana Craster, Graham Watt (vestry secretary for St John’s Church), Alastair Hutton and Angela Scott, from the Spar store, who will be involved in defibrillator training.