A PARISH council chairman has set his sights on a third life-saving defibrillator for Yarnton after installing two as part of a county-wide campaign.

Yarnton Parish Council chairman Fred Jones recently cut the ribbon to launch two new defibrillators outside Yarnton Village Hall and Westlake Pharmacy on Spencer Avenue.

Mr Jones said the investment stemmed from an Oxford Mailbacked campaign for South Central Ambulance Service and was due to the large elderly population in the village.

SCAS divisional responder commander Dick Tracey launched the campaign for people across the county to have easy access to a defibrillator.

In March a target of raising the number of defibrillators from 120 to 320 in Oxfordshire was set by the SCAS.

Mr Jones said money for the defibrillators, which cost £1,500 each, was raised through donations from clubs, a bingo night and individual donations.

The 74-year-old added: “The funding came from the residents of Yarnton and all the different sports clubs and gardening clubs such as Yarnton Lunch Club, Yarnton Bandits golf society, Yarnton Gardening Club and a lot of individual donations.

“We started funding before Christmas by running a Christmas bingo night and we raised £1,000 through that.

“The council identified the need because we have a good number of elderly residents in the area.

“I am very pleased with the response we got because the council tries to represent the best interest of the people in the area.

“If they are with someone [who collapses], they go to the defibrillator and phone the service to get the code to get in to the defibrillator and then there are instructions.

“The defibrillator cuts out the 10 minutes between someone having a heart attack and someone arriving at the scene.”

Mr Tracey last month said he was “buzzing” after the Government had promised to set aside £1 million for new machines.

He added: “The campaign is going really well – at the end of the financial year we beat our target of 200 by fitting 203 defibrillators.

“It was a lot of hard work but it was great fun because over the years I have been talking to people who are really engaged with the issue.”

The Campaign

THE Oxford Mail-backed a campaign led by South Central Ambulance service started in 2013 when divisional responder commander Dick Tracey set a target of 200 defibrillators across Oxfordshire for the 2014-15 financial year.

By February 2014 1,000 lifesavers had been trained across Oxfordshire by SCAS.

And in July last year we reported that Mr Tracey wanted to take the number of public defibrillators in the county from 120 to 320.

Since the campaign started, 203 defibrillators have been installed and a target of 100 for the 2015-16 financial year has now been set.

Mr Tracey said the number of people he had trained in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), and how to use defibrillators, had also soared thanks to Oxford Mail publicity.