On Saturday 24 September Arthur Wood, 67, an experienced runner and member of Pudsey Pacers running club, had a cardiac arrest and collapsed whilst taking part in the Bramley parkrun. Fortunately Bramley parkrun had just obtained a defibrillator which was used by a fellow runner to help resuscitate him. Following this incident the Yorkshire Evening Post made an appeal for there to be easy access to defibrillators across the region.
Fellow runner and regular at Cross Flatts parkrun, Paul Dewhirst took this appeal to his company HSD Safety, who have very generously donated £1200 to Cross Flatts parkrun, requesting that the money be spent to buy a defibrillator for Cross Flatts parkrun and any surplus funds be put towards the purchase of a defibrillator at another parkrun event currently without a defibrillator.
The defibrillator arrived last week and Mr Dewhirst presented run director Mark Hodgkinson with the important lifesaving piece of equipment which will now be available to use at parkrun each week and stored in the Watsonia pavilion for use at all organised events in Cross Flatts Park.
Mark Hodgkinson said:
“We are extremely grateful to HSD Safety for making this very generous donation which has not only enabled us to purchase the defibrillator for our event, but has also gone towards a similar piece of equipment being purchased for Roundhay parkrun. Not only that but it means that there is now a defibrillator stored in the park for any organised event. Our hope would obviously be that we never have to use it, but it is very reassuring to know that we now have it available.”
William Overton, a retired paramedic, who was first on the scene when Mr Wood collapsed in Bramley, has kindly agreed to come and give some instruction on using the defibrillator to the Cross Flatts parkrun organising team who also hope to see more volunteers trained in First Aid over the coming months.
