A HEART-starting defibrillator has been placed in St Michael’s Church’s No 28 café to protect the Middlewich community.


Middlewich was referred to as one of the ‘most heart-safe towns in the UK’ last month with 19 defibrillators having been installed in the town in recent years with the help of SADS UK and Middlewich woman Linda Boden.


St Michael’s Church is now the latest to install a defibrillator in the town, taking the total to 20 with one now at No 28 in Hightown.


Beth Deakin from St Michael’s Church said: “We had a few incidents last year with people being unwell and we thought it would be a really good idea having a defibrillator here, being a focal point of community and centre of the town.


“We just feel it’s absolutely crucial to the community. We hope we don’t have to use it but if anything unfortunate did happen, we have a good chance of helping to save someone’s life.


“We would like to say thank you to SADS and Linda Boden for all of their help in setting this up.”


The defibrillator was paid for via a donation from SADS UK, through Linda, and collections made at the church.


Churchgoers were shown how to use the defibrillator at a training session on Saturday, November 21.


Anne Jolly, founder of SADS UK, said: “SADS UK is pleased that St Michael and All Angels Church understands the lifesaving potential of the defibrillator and has put a defibrillator in place to restart the heart if there is a cardiac arrest emergency.


“Using CPR alone provides a five per cent chance of survival but early use of the defibrillator as well increases the chance of survival to over 50 per cent.


“The Automated External Defibrillator can be used by anyone in an emergency as the defibrillator speaks to you and will not deliver a shock unless it needs to.”