Defibrillator and bleed kit in memory of music fan

Phil Rooney, HMV Empire Coventry boss worked with Naomi Rees-Issitt and Jamie's godmother Tracey Brand to install the life-saving kit

A bleed control kit and defibrillator set up outside a live music venue in memory of a teenager who died from a cardiac arrest would have made him "so proud", his mother said.

"Massive music fan" Jamie Rees, 18, died in Rugby, Warwickshire on 1 January 2022.

His mother Naomi Rees-Issitt chairs the OurJay Foundation, which aims to install 100 defibrillators with bleed kits around the UK by the end of October.

"To be at a location like the Empire in Coventry would mean an awful lot to Jamie," she said.

Jamie Rees, pictured with his mother, died last year

The charity chose the HMV Empire on Hertford Street for its first defibrillator in Coventry partly because of Jamie's love of music.

"We contacted Phil [Rooney] at the Empire who was really eager to work with us," Mrs Rees-Issitt said.

"To know that his cabinet was on the outside of the Empire and then that we’ve managed to get one of Daniel Baird’s bleed kits put in that cabinet as well – Jamie… would just be so proud of that," she added.

The OurJay foundation has so far placed 80 defibrillators around the UK, in locations from Rugby to London, Essex and Cornwall.

'A no-brainer'

It has also raised funds to install 42 bleed kits in its cabinets, buying them from the Daniel Baird Foundation which was set up after the 26-year-old was stabbed in 2017 in Digbeth, Birmingham.

"It was just a bit of a no-brainer," said Mrs Rees-Issitt.

"If we were putting cabinets up in public access places, with 24-7 accessibility, then why not have as many life-saving pieces of equipment in them as possible?"

Putting the bleed control kits and defibrillators in the same cabinets made sense, Mrs Rees-Issitt said

Bleed-control kits, which contain a tourniquet, bandages and a foil blanket, provide essential treatment for stab victims while they await ambulances.

"Like the defibrillators, the bleed kits are so simple to use and the equipment in there could potentially… save somebody’s life," Mrs Rees-Issitt said.

"With catastrophic ambulance delays it shouldn't be that these things are needed, but sadly they are," she added.