New Mills youngsters on a mission to raise funds for a new defibrillator

The Little Jules nursery only opened at Easter with the staff already having the idea of installing a defibrillator. However, when Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch during a Euro 2020 game and needed a defibrillator, the team decided to start their fundraising.

Manager Julie Goodwin said: “Our children were watching and following the Euros and when Christian Eriksen needed CPR and a defib on the pitch they started asking questions about what was happening.

"They realised that cardiac arrest could happen to anyone and they wanted to get a defibrillator installed to keep them and their friends and family safe.”

A defibrillator provides electric shocks to a person who is in cardiac arrest as a means of re starting their heart again.

A spokesperson for the East Midlands Ambulance Service said: “If you need a defibrillator in an emergency, the 999 call handler will often know where one is and tell you, so you can ask someone to get it. By performing CPR and using a defibrillator, you’ll give someone the best possible chance of survival, but there isn’t always a defibrillator close enough to help save the life of someone having a cardiac arrest.”

The nursery is raising funds to not just have an adult defibrillator installed but also child’s pads too which come at an additional expense.

The children, who are aged up to 11, have already done two sponsored walks going up Lantern Pike and Big Stone with each of the walks around nine miles.

Another three are planned for different days to ensure all children can take part. These will see the children walk to Mellor Cross, Lyme Park and up Kinder Scout.

Julie said: “We are quite an outdoorsy setting so we had to think of a way to really challenge the children so they would feel proud and that they have achieved something by the end of it.”Anyone wanting to make a donation to the new defibrillator fund can drop money off at Little Jules on Mellor Road in New MIlls.

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