West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has offered her support to a local campaigner aiming to train people to use defibrillators and save lives.

Malvern based charity Heartstart has already trained 4,300 local people to use the specialist equipment which can help to save lives after someone has had a heart attack.

Defibrillators can provide vital life-saving treatment, with latest research showing that accessing these devices within three to five minutes of a cardiac arrest increases the chance of survival by over 40 per cent.

Now Heartstart is looking to expand its work across Worcestershire with the goal of training enough people to save up to 100 lives each year.

This week, the Government confirmed that it will match the funding on projects looking to install more difibrillators in local communities, meaning that twice the number of units will be available under this new scheme.

Harriett said:

“I attended the launch of Heartstart five years ago and it has done amazing work getting defibrillators into the community and training people to be able to use them.

“Many people will have seen a defibrillator at a public building but most people wouldn’t know what to do in case of a serious heart attack.

“The Government thinks that defibrillators can perform an important role in saving lives and is rolling out financial support to help us have many more units in the community.

“Heartstart founder Richard Vakis-Lowe has written to me and my fellow Worcestershire MPs to help to roll out his training campaign and I am happy to once again offer him my support.”