ONE man’s mission to get 200 more public defibrillators across Oxfordshire has smashed its target thanks to the Oxford Mail.

And South Central Ambulance Service’s Dick Tracey has already started work on getting the next 180 – bringing the total to 500.

Divisional responder commander Mr Tracey, of West Oxfordshire, said he doesn’t want anybody to be more than 10 minutes from one of the life-saving machines.

He beat the original 200 target by three before his deadline of April 1 when the 203rd was bought by Eynsham Social and Sports Club.

Mr Tracey said: “While I was absolutely convinced we would get lots of defibrillators in the last year, the reason we achieved the target and trained the amount of people we did is without a doubt because of the support of the Oxford Mail, and it is really appreciated.

“I’m treating it as phase one complete, now we move into phase two.

“Now I want to get another 180 and I’ll be concentrating on the north and south of the county.”

In phase one, Mr Tracey and his team brought the total number of public-access defibrillators in Oxfordshire from 120 to more than 320.

They also trained 1,000 people to do CPR and created a mobile phone app showing the location of all defibrillators in Oxfordshire.

He said phase two would begin on May 1 and he would be trying to get more local councils to back the campaign.

The public-access defibrillators which Mr Tracey is campaigning for can be operated by anyone and provide pre-recorded instructions.

They send an electric pulse through the chest to restore normal heart rhythm.

Every minute a person in cardiac arrest goes without treatment their chance of survival decreases roughly 14 per cent so the machines can save lives.

Mr Tracey began his campaign in West Oxfordshire, where the district council offered to pay half the cost of an £1,800 defibrillator for 30 villages.

He said his efforts there had been “extremely successful” with the council’s help.

He said he set a lower target of 180 for phase two of the project because he did not expect to be able to dedicate as much time to it in the coming year.

But he said: “I’m confident we will reach that target of 500.”

He encouraged anyone interested in getting a defibrillator for their village hall, sports club or workplace to get in touch with him for advice.

He said: “There are a number of things I can do to help. I can steer them in the right direction, where to source these machines and get training afterwards.

“We can talk about fundraising in their local area or I can put them in touch with other groups who have done fundraising.”

He also urged any organisation that had installed a defibrillator but not told the ambulance service to get in touch.

He said: “We are really pleased about that but we really need them to tell us so that should we receive a 999 call from that premises, maybe from a visitor who doesn’t know, we can tell them there is a defibrillator there.”

Download the app at southcentralambulance.nhs.uk/campaigns/startaheart.ashx

For help to get a defibrillator installed email richard.tracey@ scas.nhs.uk

Timeline

  • January 2014 – An anonymous donor whose life was saved by a defibrillator provided money to install 24 new public access defibrillators across West Oxfordshire
  • West Oxfordshire District Council agreed to fund-match 30 more across the rest of the district
  • July 2014 – Dick Tracey says there should be at least 200 more defibrillators across the whole county and vows to continue campaigning for them “until the day I drop”. The Oxford Mail backs his campaign
  • August 2014 – More than 20 more defibrillators were ordered around Oxfordshire after a surge of interest in the campaign
  • April 2015 – Mr Tracey hits his 200 target, bringing the total number in the county to more than 320