Calls to make AEDs ‘as common as smoke alarms’

As part of World Heart Rhythm Week (6-12 June), professional golfer Bernard Gallacher OBE is raising awareness of the importance of Automated External Defibrillators (AED) after he was saved by one nearly 10 years ago.

Mr Gallacher suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in 2013 immediately before he was about to give an after-dinner speech. His life was saved thanks to the actions of a member in the audience who quickly located a nearby AED.

Thanks to Mr Gallacher’s continuous campaigning, more than 100 AEDs have been installed in UK golf clubs over the last four years, but he won’t stop there.

One in three people don’t know where there nearest AED is located

Mr Gallacher wants to see defibrillators become as common as smoke alarms, with one in every sporting facility and community centre across the country.

However, a recent survey undertaken by the Arrhythmia Alliance found that more than a third of people don’t know if their sports club has an AED, and one in three don’t know where there nearest AED is located.

Although most of the respondents knew what an AED is, more than half said they don’t know how to use one, and a further one in five people don’t know how to perform CPR.

For this reason, Mr Gallacher has become an Ambassador to Arrhythmia Alliance and continues to campaign for and raise awareness of the importance of AEDs.

Talking about Mr Gallacher’s experience, his wife Lesley said: “He had everything, he had the best chance ever. Not everybody can be saved, but everybody deserves the chance to be saved.”

For more information about AEDs, please visit: www.defibssavelives.org