Public access to heart defibrillator at Weston RNLI Station

The family of a former crew member of Weston RNLI have helped realise their late relative’s ambition to have a publicly accessible heart defibrillator at the lifeboat station.

Brian Ward, who died in 2019, was a long-serving crew member at Weston RNLI station.

He arranged for a defibrillator to be installed at the lifeboat station, but it was kept in the boathouse to protect it from vandalism.

After his death, Brian’s family held a remembrance day, where they marked the occasion by raising enough money to purchase an external cabinet for the defibrillator. This has now been fixed in place at the station.

Lifeboat operations manager Mike Buckland, said: “The great advantage of this new location is that it is always available to anyone who needs it, to save someone whose heart has stopped working, even if the crew are not in attendance.

“If a member of the public sees someone who may be having a heart attack, or their heart has stopped, they can ring the ambulance control on their mobile phone and they will be given the instructions on how to get at and use the defibrillator inside.”

He added: “Brian Ward was a stalwart of our crew. He was always trying to help people, hence him arranging for the defibrillator to be acquired. His family have been tremendous in helping us fund the cabinet to make it publicly accessible.”

Weston RNLI’s income was hard-hit when fundraising events were stopped as a result of the pandemic and lockdown. Volunteers remained on call throughout the crisis. To donate click on www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wsmnewboathouse