Redrow replaces stolen Nantwich defibrillator

Life-saving equipment stolen from Nantwich town centre has been replaced by Redrow.

It’s unclear when the Community Public Access Defibrillator was taken from its cabinet outside the Market Centre, but within hours of finding out about the theft we offered to replace it.

Town clerk Samantha Roberts said: “We were really disappointed that someone had stolen the original defibrillator, which had been there for four years without any problems. It’s unclear when it was taken but it’s extremely lucky that it hadn’t been required in an emergency situation as someone’s health could have been seriously affected.

“We’re extremely grateful that Redrow quickly intervened to offer a replacement defibrillator. Without their help, replacing it would have been a significant extra cost to the council during the COVID-19 lockdown, although we have had offers of donations from the local community.”

The replacement defibrillator was delivered by Sarah Weaver, our North West marketing manager. Our Kingsbourne housing development is on the edge of the town, which previously gave to local charities and organisations through its £10,000 Nantwich Community Fund.

Sarah said: “We were shocked to discover that a potentially life-saving piece of equipment had been stolen from Nantwich town centre. Transferring a surplus defibrillator from our Kingsbourne site for the community to use in the event of an emergency was an obvious solution. While we hope it won’t need to be used, it’s reassuring to know that there will be a defibrillator available should anyone suffer a cardiac arrest.”

The defibrillator will be reinstalled in a secure case in the next few days. In the event of an emergency the person calling 999 will be given an access code to unlock the case once they have confirmed that they are dealing with a cardiac arrest.

If combined with effective CPR within a few minutes of the incident, the use of a defibrillator increases the potential survivability of an out of hospital cardiac arrest from just 5% to 75%.

We have more than 100 defibrillators across our live developments and regional offices in England and Wales, which can be accessed by staff, contractors and the local community in the event of a medical emergency. We have also created an eLearning module about the use of the defibrillators, which is available to all staff.

In some areas we have partnered with Hand on Heart to provide defibrillators in schools. Support from our voluntary community funds attached to our housing developments across the North West have also helped provide defibrillators including those in Sandbach, Little Sutton and Congleton.