Jamie Rees: Defibrillator fund helps family focus our grief - mother

Naomi Rees Issitt wanted to make sure everyone had access to a defibrillator

A woman who set up a defibrillator appeal in memory of her son says it has given her family something to focus on in their grief.

The "Our Jay" Foundation was set up after 18-year-old Jamie Rees collapsed and later died after having a cardiac arrest on New Year's Day in 2022.

The fund raises money to place defibrillators around Warwickshire.

Jamie's mother Naomi Rees-Issitt celebrated the installation of the 100th device in Rugby last week.

Jamie, from Wolvey in Warwickshire, had returned from watching fireworks when his heart suddenly stopped.

It took more than 17 minutes for an ambulance to reach Jamie and Mrs Rees-Issitt said his friends, who administered CPR on the teenager, knew there was a nearby defibrillator device, "but it was locked inside a school".

Police officers who arrived to help him before paramedics got there, "also didn't have a defibrillator in their car" and had to send an officer to Rugby to collect one, she said.

As a result of those delays, Mrs Rees-Issitt wants to make sure everyone gets easy access to a defibrillator in future.

Jamie Rees, 18, died after suffering a cardiac arrest on New Year's Day 2022

She received a BBC Make a Difference award in September.

After the installation of the 100th device, she said: "It was always my aim that Jamie would never be forgotten and I don't think he ever will be everybody knows Jamie in this town and I'm just super-proud of him.

"It gives us something to focus on, we miss Jamie more every single day and your mind gets swept up by grief, but if we didn't have this to concentrate on I think it would be a million times worse."

Mrs Rees-Issitt said she now aims to install another 200 defibrillators before the end of 2024.