Calls for more defibrillators after student death

Professor Sally Moyle and Amy Shadbolt with one of the six defibrillators at the University of Worcester

A student paramedic at the University of Worcester is fronting a campaign for more public defibrillators, after witnessing her course-mate die in a traffic collision.

Amy Shadbolt, 21, has already helped her university make its six defibrillators more accessible and get them registered to the National Defibrillator Database.

Now, Ms Shadbolt is campaigning for a defibrillator to be installed by the Henwick Road Co-op, where her friend died.

After starting a fundraising page, the student has raised more than £900 towards her £2,000 goal.

Discussing her motivation, Ms Shadbolt said: "In the first year of my degree, I unfortunately witnessed my friend in a road traffic collision round the corner from the University.

"That kind of kick-started the campaign in realising that we need more defibs."

Ms Shadbolt also wants to raise awareness about public defibrillators and has stressed that they are "really easy to use".

The paramedic student said public defibs will even talk the user through the whole process from a screen on the device.

"A lot of them are fully automated so you do not even have to click shock or anything - they do them themselves if it is needed," she said.

"It shows you where to put the pads and everything so it is really simple to use."

Professor Sally Moyle, the pro vice-chancellor for Health and Science, said: "The university is fully supportive of getting these defibs where we can.

"We listened to the students last year, they told us about our own defibs which were not necessarily in the right place.

"We had not got them on The Circuit, which is the national database.

"We have now done all that and we have worked really closely with the paramedic students."

She said she was "really pleased" that the campaign was now moving out into the wider community.