A Perth gym is raising funds to try and install a life-saving defibrillator.
Staff at Fit4Less on the city’s Canal Street will be busy taking on challenges in a bid to raise £1000 to buy the equipment.
Liam Bruce, who is heading up the gym’s fundraising, said: “We are raising funds to buy a defibrillator for the club because the closest one to us is at Tesco on South Street.
“If someone did go into cardiac arrest at the gym, by the time you go round there to get it that’s already three minutes gone and that’s halved the chances of survival.
“We need to ensure all our members are safe and the risks are reduced to a minimum, anything to improve the chances of survival in an incident.
“It takes around 11 minutes for the emergency services to respond to a call of a cardiac arrest.
“But if you don’t have a defibrillator after a few minutes, the chances of survival are halved, and you can’t put a price on someone’s life.”
Staff, gym members and other members of the public are all getting involved in the fundraising efforts.
Each week staff members will be set a different challenge, with gym members encouraged to bet on who they think will win.
Liam continued: “In November we have staff versus staff challenges each week.
“Members and non-members can place a £5 bet on which member of staff they think will win, and if they win they will be entered into a draw to get a free membership.
“It will be quite fun challenges like who can finish a box of Jaffa Cakes the quickest.
“This week we have a donkey derby.
“It is all going to make us look a bit silly and will bring a smile to people’s faces.
“In December there will be a Christmas raffle and come January we will do a ‘biggest loser’ challenge, so whoever loses the most weight or body fat wins.”
Liam and the rest of the team at Fit4Less hope to have the defibrillator in the gym by the end of January 2020.
Should the fundraising drive be successful, the defibrillator will be installed in the gym’s staff room, and any extra money will be reinvested into other health and safety equipment in the gym.
The team is also raising money online at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/perthfit4lessdefib
