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Mother pledged to install defibrillators across town, the reason for her step has to do with a tragic event

One of the most precious things that we as parents have is certainly our children, and we are doing everything in our power to protect them. But sometimes, no matter how hard we try to keep them safe, things happen that are beyond our control.

One woman experienced the “worst feeling a parent can have,” and the grieving mother is now trying to make sure that no other parent can experience the loss of their loved ones by installing defibrillators across her hometown. She decided to take this step after losing her teenage son to cardiac arrest, and the nearest kit was locked up in a school.

The 18-year-old Jamie collapsed at a friend’s home. Even though his friend tried to resuscitate him while waiting for paramedics to arrive, he did not get enough oxygen and passed away several days later in a hospital. The emergency services said the day was unusually busy and three other emergency calls came in shortly before theirs.

Since then, his mother, Naomi, has gathered the support of friends and family in an effort to collect sufficient funds to provide Jamie’s hometown with twenty automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

“There are defibs out there (but they) are locked in buildings. You can’t pre-plan your cardiac arrest. Defibrillators that are locked in buildings are pretty pointless. The ambulance pulled up to Jamie’s side in 19.5 minutes,” Naomi explained. “If you reach a person in cardiac arrest in seven minutes, the chances of getting his heart beating again are 70%,” Naomi said.

Because of the amazing response from the community to Naomi’s fundraising effort, what began as just one defibrillator has grown to be twenty different kits.

Naomi, a mother of two who was the manager of a charitable organization, came to the conclusion that the fundraising operation should be transformed into an official charity.

“We started funding for money to set up a defibrillator outside the school. We started the campaign, and in just one day we’d raised £3,000. Jamie was really loved by members of his college,” Naomi said.

They chose to go on, and donations have steadily increased to a record-breaking level of approximately $14,000.

They approached local companies for donations to a raffle, and as a result, they were able to give away 65 prizes. The bingo night that took place on August 5 raised £6,175 in total.

“We’ve had people with long hair being chopped off for it, and we have a skydive with my sister and her husband and the British Army Parachute regiment coming up, too. We’re all pretty exhausted, but we’re hopefully giving something back to our town,” she said.

The installation of the twenty defibrillators is expected to be completed by January 5, 2023.

“We can’t thank people enough. The support has been amazing. It’s such a minor amount of money to save a life. We know Jamie is out there. He’s meant to be saving lives,” Naomi added.

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