Scottish HART - news 2004

It seems a long time since we were able to up-date the news page and a whole lot has been going on over the past few months so we had better begin at the beginning after we were at Aberdeen Football Club early in the year we then climbed to the top of the Nevis Range to put another defibrillator in place at the top gondola station.

Fergus Ewing, the local MSP was great as he handed over the defib to Tony and the team and has been supportive of Scottish HART ever since, asking questions at Holyrood on our behalf and getting the Scottish Executive to show much more interest in both our defib AED programme and the screening we demand for young sportsmen and women

We have another AED in a PAD (that’s a public access defibrillator) scheme in Selkirk town centre, based in Rodgerson’s the Newsagents and that has been a great success with over 30 responder volunteers already through training and more showing an interest.

It’s the same on the outskirts of Dunfermline in Fife where the Fife Leisure Park has a team of volunteers from Bannatyne’s Sports Club, the Odeon Cinema, Pizza Hut, McDonalds and Frankie & Benny’s all trained and where Jim Leishman the Dunfermline manager handed over the machine on our behalf.

The nurses up at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness have two of our defibrillators now working to save lives in that area and we are currently planning similar machines for Peebles and Galashiels in the Borders.

We are always on the lookout for more fund raising activities and more volunteers. All money raised in a community is spent in the community. If you can help us in any way give us a ring on the number published on our home page or send us an e-mail.

August 2004

We have had a busy start to the year with an AED (automated external defibrillator) now at Pittodrie Stadium, the home of Aberdeen Football Club. We were made very welcome to Aberdeen by the Reds and acted as something of a good luck charm on the day we handed over the defibrillator they held Rangers to a 1-1 draw.

Wilma hands over the AED to the Aberdeen Football Club at Pittodrie Stadium minutes before Aberdeen played Rangers

A few weeks later we were on the top of the Nevis Range outside Fort William and although it was wet and windy at sea level once we had gone up on the gondola to the top of Anoch Mor we saw what it is really like on those ski slopes. It was blowing a blizzard and we could not see far

That was a bit of a blessing as the top slopes were closed and we had a captive audience at the top to watch Fergus Ewing, MSP hand the AED over to the Nevis Team who do a great job in saving lives on the top of the mountain range.

Fergus Ewing, MSP hands the AED over to the Nevis Team

We are now looking at the setting up of PADS Schemes throughout Scotland. PADS stands for Public Access Defibrillator Scheme and we want members of the public who live or work in or near shopping centres, and town centres to train to use the AEDs as in many rural areas especially it takes more than ten minutes for an ambulance to arrive at a cardiac arrest patient.

A PADS scheme run in conjunction with the ambulance service could potentially save many more lives in Scotland which has the unenviable record of having the worst heart disease in the developed world.

Brian Carlin, our medical director is co-ordinating all these schemes.

Of course we need much more fund raising if we are to continue supplying more and more of these life-saving machines, not to mention our main aim of having screening carried out on young sportsmen and women nationwide so we need you to help.

Currently we have names of some who want to do a sponsored parachute jump during the summer but could do with a few more.

We are also hoping to publish a Recipe Book of healthy food and would ask you to send these to Dilys at Shoe World, 56 High Street, Selkirk ASAP to be included in the publication.

With runners planning to be at the Dunfermline Half Marathon in May and at the Baxter's Loch Ness Marathon in October, we are hoping for a busy sports year and, of course, Drew Kelly the SFA Football Development Officer for the Borders is looking for teams to take part in the "Cameron Gunn Memorial Football Competition" on Sunday, 13 June.

Company sponsorship is currently being sought to underwrite our Fiddle Concert in Peebles Burgh Hall on 30th October and also our "Scottish Night" in the Victoria Hall, Selkirk on 27th November.

Scottish H.A.R.T.