A BREWERY is looking at where best to equip its Oxfordshire pubs with life-saving machines.

Hook Norton Brewery is looking at its portfolio, which includes 20 county pubs, to work out where publicly accessible defibrillators would most benefit communities.

It comes as the company unveiled a device outside the Red Lion in Chipping Norton after funding from Chipping Norton Lions Club.

The units – which anyone can use to shock the heart back to life – are seen as crucial for rural areas, which ambulances can take longer to get to.

Managing director James Clarke, who is a community first responder in Hook Norton and Banbury, said: “We have a number of pubs that are the focus of the village, so it’s a good place for people to know where they are.

“They are very important because if someone has a cardiac arrest they may only have a 10-minute window.

“We’re looking at every potential pub where it could help, but in some places it won’t be appropriate because there may be one already nearby.”

The Lions have also raised money to install the £1,800 devices in the Masonic Hall in Over Norton Road and in a defunct telephone box in Market Street.

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