A group of Sheffield men have made the 28-mile walk from Crystal Peaks to Mam Tor to raise money for a life-saving defibrillator at the Milestone Pub.
Karl Seery, 41, owner of the Milestone Pub and Fairway Inn, along with friends John Tunstall, 74, retired, and Mark Shaw, 54, who works for Window Doctor UK, raised £1,700 from their all-day hike.
Mr Seery said: “We were talking about fundraising for the defibrillator at the Milestone and one of my friends suggested we walk to Mam Tor.”
After completing the walk, The Milestone were contacted by Westfield Health, a not-for-profit health organisation based in the city centre, who offered to pay for the defibrillator. This has now been ordered and should be installed in the next two weeks.
The rest of the money raised will therefore be used to look after it, and staff at the pub will also be given defibrillator training.
The pub is located next to Crystal Peaks shopping centre, which has 11 million annual visitors. Mr Seery added: “There isn’t actually a defibrillator outside Crystal Peaks, there’s one inside in the security office in case there’s an emergency during the day but they haven’t got one outside.”
The nearest outdoor defibrillator to the pub is located at McDonalds in Drakehouse Retail Park, which is a six minute walk away.
Mr Seery said: “The defibrillator will make a difference to someone if they need it, things have happened at the bus station and in the pub and as soon as you ring the ambulance they ask if there’s a defibrillator and now we can say yes.
“It will be outside and accessible 24/7 for the community so they don’t have to go running after one.”
According to Resuscitation Council UK, for every minute that someone is in cardiac arrest without receiving CPR and having a defibrillator used on them, their chance of survival decreases by 10%, which is why it is so important to act immediately.
Bob Reville, a cardiac arrest survivor who donated, said: “Great work lads, from someone whose life was saved by one of these 10 years ago.”
Mr Reville’s cardiac arrest happened suddenly whilst eating in the Oasis food court in Meadowhall in 2013. An off-duty nurse who was sat nearby quickly realised the severity of the situation and called for help, and a defibrillator was thankfully nearby.
He said it was due to CPR being started quickly that he was able to recover from the incident so quickly.
