RESIDENTS in Easton Royal who have been campaigning for the village to have defibrillators are celebrating raising enough funds to install two of them.

Following a death in the village near Pewsey last year, a number of people felt a defibrillator was needed in the event of someone suffering a cardiac arrest and needing urgent medical help before paramedics could reach them.

Claire Perry MP together with Ken Wenman, South West Ambulance Service (SWAS) chief executive, and chairman Heather Strawbridge met with villagers to discuss healthcare and ambulance services in the local area.

Fiona de Pass, representing the fundraising team, was delighted to be presented with a defibrillator by Mr Wenman on behalf of SWAS, which means that together with the funds raised, that two defibrillators will be installed, one at each end of The Street. The village community will also receive cardiac arrest response training

The group said: “We are a small isolated community and by installing a defibrillator we feel that we could save a life that may not be able to wait for a response from further afield.

“We also feel that raising the profile and general awareness of first response in this isolated community is vital.”

Ms Perry added: “Campaigning for better local healthcare services is one of my priorities and I am continuing to work closely with Ken Wenman and the team at SWAS to find ways to improve local provision.

“There are challenges with ensuring fast Ambulance response times in the more rural parts of the Devizes Constituency and I am really pleased that Easton Royal will shortly have two defibrillators in the village.

“I was also very interested to hear about the progress being made to recruit more Community First Responders including Fire Co-Responders, working with the Fire Service.”