Campaigning parents have welcomed plans for public access defibrillators to be installed outside every primary school in Renfrewshire.
Back in June, parents Rachael Cosgrove and Michael Campbell launched a fundraising campaign to install the potentially life-saving machines outside every primary in Renfrew in the wake of the on-field collapse of the Danish footballer, Christian Eriksen at Euro 2020.
Christian suffered a cardiac arrest while playing for the Danish national side and millions of football fans around the world were affected by the heartbreaking images on screen.
Luckily, thanks to prompt medical attention, Christian survived.
But Rachael, who was watching the match with her nine-year-old son Alfie, said they were both affected by what they saw.
She teamed up with Michael and they spoke at the parent council meeting at Kirklandneuk Primary.
That caught the attention of Councillor John Shaw who backed the pair and vowed to extend the plan to include every primary school in Renfrewshire.
Now, councillors on the Finance, Resources and Customer Services policy board will meet next Wednesday, September 1 to approve the purchase and installation of new public access defibrillators to be fitted on the gates of all 50 primary schools.
The plans will also include additional defibrillators added at secondary schools where the existing ones aren’t accessible to the public.
Rachael said: “We’ve been speaking to Councillor Shaw about this for the last few months. He told us to hang fire with our campaign because he was going to put a proposal to the council.
“It’s fantastic that it’s going to happen.
“We had tried to get the ball rolling with this and set up the Gofundme page. We’ve now refunded everyone who donated because we know the council are going to do this.”
The emergency resuscitation devices are already available at all secondary and Additional Support Needs (ASN) schools across Renfrewshire.
Finance convener Councillor John Shaw, said: “The incident involving Danish international footballer Christian Eriksen reminded us all how defibrillators can be the difference between life and death.
“This investment will not only ensure children and staff at our schools have access, but be publicly accessible for all Renfrewshire residents and communities.
“This matter was raised with me by a number of constituents including Kirklandneuk Primary Parent Council and I’m pleased that we’ve been able to address this as a matter of urgency.”
Defibrillators are already in place in council buildings, town halls and at local leisure facilities. The device locations are registered with the national network to help the emergency services when responding to 999 calls.
Each defibrillator includes simple-to-follow instructions on how to use them in the event of an emergency.
Education convener Councillor Jim Paterson added: “It’s important that we have ample provision across all our schools, while also ensuring members of the public can have access to them too and I look forward to them being installed as soon as possible.”
If approved, the new publicly accessible defibrillators would be installed by the end of the year.
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