Healthy hearts in Heaton
Heaton postwoman, Emma Benjamin, with the help of her colleagues, has secured a lifesaving defibrillator for her delivery office.
When a person has a cardiac arrest, a defibrillator can be used to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm. Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are lightweight, battery-operated, portable devices that are simple to use.
Sticky pads with sensors are attached to the chest of the person who is having a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). The sensors send information about the person's heart rhythm to a computer in the AED. The computer then analyses the heart rhythm to find out whether an electric shock is needed.
Emma began raising awareness about the importance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training more than five years ago after learning that she had a heart condition, which has now been resolved.
Since then, she has campaigned and fundraised to have an amazing seven defibrillators installed in public places within her local community.
‘I’m really thrilled that we now have a defibrillator in place in the Heaton Delivery Office,’ said Emma. ‘All my colleagues, as well as the union, backed me and donated to help make this happen.
‘I believed that having a workplace without a defibrillator in place was unsafe and since I’ve spent the last five years campaigning and raising funds for defibrillators in my local schools, park, pubs and local non-league football clubs, it seemed only logical to have one in my workplace.
‘Sudden cardiac arrest is the UK’s biggest killer. It can affect anyone. Cardiac arrest kills up to 100,000 people every year, including 15 young people a week. I wanted my children to be heart-safe, including everyone at my children’s school.
‘Currently it is only new build buildings used for workplaces that are required by law to have a defibrillator available. Unfortunately, Heaton Delivery Office is not a new build. This is what led me to raise the funds needed to have one installed.
‘North East Hearts with Goals place lifesaving defibrillators into public places such as schools, colleges and sports clubs. It’s a fantastic charity, which has helped me amazingly over the last five years in placing these units. The ladies work tirelessly to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest, and have to date placed more than 450 units across the north-east.
‘I would love to see all Royal Mail offices have defibrillators on site in the future and I would just like to say a massive thank you to all my colleagues for their support.’
Heaton delivery line manager, Jim Anderson, said: ‘We now have a defibrillator on site and 10 colleagues trained for its use. This was all possible through Emma’s determination and commitment to the cause.’
