A devastated family has revealed the tragic story behind an old phone box outside their home that now holds a defibrillator.
In 2017, dad-of-three John Tully died in his bed after a sudden heart attack in his family home near Julianstown, Co Meath.
The Tully family realised the importance of having access to a defibrillator and in a tribute to John who was a truck enthusiast, they held a truck run to raise money for an AED for their locality.
His wife Sandra and three sons Andrew, Conor and JP decided that a vintage phone box would be the perfect place to store the vital piece of live saving equipment.
Sandra unsuccessfully attempted to perform CPR on John, who was aged 54 when he passed away.
Recalling what happened on the night that John died, Sandra told RTE News: “Every morning John made me a cup of tea at 4.45am.
“But as it was a Saturday, he asked me to make him a cup. I went up to make the tea, put the kettle on and came back down and John was gone.
“I got him down to the floor; I had just completed my CPR training. I continued with compressions. In hindsight, they told me I did 600 compressions to no avail.”
Conor Tully, John’s son said: “One of the main reasons behind the box is giving back.
“We were only here a couple of weeks and people down the road were asking if we needed help and my dad would be helping them too.
“If something ever happens this will be here, just like my dad was, to help.
“John used to say to me, ‘why didn’t you call me today?’, and I would say, ‘I had no credit’.
“He would say ‘well why don’t you buy some?’ and I would say, ‘I had no money’. He would then say, ‘why don’t you use a payphone?’ and I would say ‘there’s no more payphones, they’re long gone’.
“So every time we would go off for the day he would point out phone boxes to me.”
The Tully family recently carried out a second truck run to raise funds for another defibrillator for the local area.
