TENBURY boxing celebrity Paddy Brennan and the Tenbury Wells Advertiser are joining forces to save lives.

Paddy, who heads Tenbury Boxing Club, will have us in his corner as he begins a fight to bring heart start machines to the town.

And we’ve already helped to achieve this with our sister paper, the Ludlow Advertiser 10 miles down the road.

In Ludlow there is now a team of nine Heart Starters – volunteers trained by West Midlands Ambulance Service to use a defibrillator in an emergency.

Now Paddy wants a defibrillator for Tenbury as well as a team to use it.

“I want Tenbury to have one to deploy when people suffer a heart attack,” he said.

“ I want us to help give victims the chance of life.”

Paddy says that he became aware of how vulnerable people are to sudden illness just over a year ago when his wife Rosemarie suffered three major strokes.

She is now slowly recovering but the shock set Paddy thinking about how a defibrillator could help those hit by sudden illness and the importance of being able to of fer that help in those crucial few moments before the emergency services arrive on the scene.

“I have heard of four people in the Tenbury area that have suffered heart attacks over the Christmas and New Year holiday,”

said Paddy.

“We need as many people as possible who can use the machine. There are five first aiders at the boxing club and I can get them trained but we need more volunteers.”

A defibrillator delivers a controlled electric shock that can start a heart that has stopped.

The machines cost about £1,500 and are usually stored in a secure box in a public place that is accessible via a code to trained operators.

“Altogether we are talking about in the order of £2,000 which is nothing to save lives,” said Paddy.

“Once we can get one heart start machine then we could get more people trained and in time get others in the town and surrounding area.”

Anyone who wants to help with the fund raising or be trained in using a heart defibrillator should contact Paddy Brennan, telephone 07904 396465.