Life-saving equipment for running club

East Coast Community Healthcare has donated a new defibrillator to a local running club after one of their members collapsed at an event.

Bungay Black Dog Running Club had been planning to purchase one of the life-saving machines when the emergency incident highlighted their importance. Ladies captain Alice Kirk, who works for ECCH’s Health and Safety Team, asked if the organisation had any spare defibrillators the club could buy and ECCH offered to give them one instead.

Bungay Black Dog Chairman Robin Ashe said: “We are very grateful to East Coast Community Healthcare for giving us this defibrillator. It was very traumatic when one of our runners was in an emergency situation, from which thankfully they recovered, and it’s very reassuring to know we now have this potentially life-saving piece of equipment to hand should we ever need it.”

ECCH’s chief executive Jonathan Williams said: “We are only too happy to have been able to help the running club in this way. As an organisation we are committed to promoting health and wellbeing and, as a social enterprise, one of our aims is to benefit the local community so this seemed like a very appropriate way in which to do both those things. We hope the club never needs to use it but we’re glad they can have peace of mind that the equipment is there if the need arises.”