Defibrillators for every parkrun

 

First Aid Accident & Emergency (FAAE) have partnered up with Guy Leech and parkrun for an Australian first.

FAAE have established themselves as a market leader for Workplace Defibrillators by teaming up with the best in the business- Guy Leech, parkrun and Physio Control to deliver an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to every parkrun event in the country, that’s right, the ultimate life saving tool at your local parkrun. That’s a massive undertaking considering there is now over 150 parkrun events in Australia.

parkrun is a free National, Saturday morning 5 km timed running or jogging event, you can even take your dog, this event is taking the country and the world by storm with over 1 million parkrunners registered worldwide.

The parkrun partnership started a few years ago when First Aid Accident & Emergency were approached by Tim Oberg after some serious incidents at parkrun events in Australia, these situations were serious enough to think about how we could help the parkrun team deal with possible resuscitation’s and serious emergencies.

A national partnership was formed between parkrun and First Aid Accident & Emergency, this was headed up by Scott Whimpey, a self confessed running addict and parkrunner. “We initially helped out by implemented first aid kits for all parkrun events, but we needed to set the bar higher” said Scott, Director of FAAE.

Defibs4parkrun is a crowd funding initiative that was conceived by parkrun Director – Tim Oberg and his 2IC Renee Gimbert. In 2016 the two went out and on a mission and approached local members of the councils for funding, they also started with crowd funding, aiming to raise funds for the defibrillator dream. Everything started turning into reality late last year with some progress being made, defibrillators were purchased and started to get shipped out to events.

Then FAAE was approached by Guy Leech- a former world iron man champion and an ambassador for Physio Control defibrillators, Guy  had been through a personal experience with a mate on a surf ski that had a SCA (sudden cardiac arrest), despite all attempts being made to resuscitate his mate, Guy was not successful and his mate could not be revived by the champ. Guy immediately looked for the answer and found it in AED’s.

Guy approached Physio Control and struck up a partnership, he wanted to raise awareness about the necessity of defibrillators within the first 10 minutes of someone having a heart attack.

By this stage Tim and Renee were up and running and decided to put the “Dream Team” together, Scott Whimpey and Guy Leech headed up the supply and services required for the Australian parkrun organisation.

“Teaming up with Guy Leech not only helps us promote safety in Australia and especially within the parkrun family, it helps us get the word out about defibrillators, first aid and CPR training and all the key aspects of a successful resuscitation” says Scott

Over 120 defibrillators are now at parkrun events with more to come.

So as a parkrunner, you can now feel a little safer hitting your favourite 5km patch of turf with a parkrun defibrillator ready to go.

Thanks Tim, Renee, Guy and the FAAE team for making the dream a reality.

For more information on Sudden Cardiac Arrests, defibrillators and first aid procedures to perform a successful resuscitation, check our parkrun page.

If you would like to enquire about a Workplace Defibrillator or first aid kit, call the office on 07 55205068 or visit us at www.firstaidae.com.au

 

 

 

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