TAYLOR Wimpey East Scotland is donating a potentially life-saving defibrillator, which will be installed at Scotmid’s Ratho Station store following an initiative sparked by a local resident Michelle Black.
The housebuilder is donating the defibrillator and external cabinet from its recently completed Lauder Grove development. Scotmid will provide a permanent home for the equipment, arrange and fund its installation and power supply, and take responsibility for ongoing checks, maintenance and replacement parts.
The initiative began following death of a local resident following a cardiac arrest, which prompted Michelle to investigate the availability of defibrillators in the village. Michelle identified four registered defibrillators nearby but found they were located within businesses with restricted access and were not available to the community 24 hours a day.
She approached her local Scotmid store to see if it could help. Scotmid explored potential solutions and identified an opportunity to work with Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, which had a defibrillator and external cabinet available following the completion of its nearby site.
The donation forms part of Taylor Wimpey’s commitment to leaving a legacy in the communities in which it builds. As part of an initiative with the British Heart Foundation (BHF), the firm is donating defibrillators from completed developments to communities across the UK.
Kirsty McGill, sales and marketing director at Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, said, “It’s so important to us that we give something back to the communities in which we build. Our partnership with the BHF is vitally important in helping to ensure that more defibrillators are available for people who might need them. We’re delighted that the defibrillator from our Lauder Grove development will now have a permanent home at Scotmid’s Ratho Station store, where it will be accessible to the wider community 24 hours a day. This is exactly the kind of lasting legacy we hope to create when our developments are completed.”
The defibrillator will be registered on The Circuit, the national defibrillator network. All Scotmid defibrillators are registered on The Circuit as part of the Society’s wider work with BHF Scotland. The Circuit shares defibrillator information with ambulance services, helping 999 call handlers identify nearby devices and direct bystanders to them in an emergency.
