Cafe plays host to new lifesaving defibrillator

A public access defibrillator has been installed at Mansbridge's Round About cafe, funded by housing provider Abri.

The device, positioned at the café front, can be accessed anytime and requires no specialist training to operate.

It was installed responding to Abri's customers' wish for more in-community defibrillators.

Part of the national defibrillator network, this device will contribute to the lifesaving early defibrillation of cardiac arrest, a condition threatening 30,000 UK residents annually.

Jim Lillywhite-Buley, one of Abri’s community wellbeing co-ordinators, organised the installation and said: "Customers from our two independent living schemes in Mansbridge felt strongly that there should be greater access to defibrillators in their local area.

"Before the installation, the nearest device was in Wessex Lane, so we felt the café could be the perfect place for a brand-new defibrillator, especially as so many of our scheme residents already love to meet and chat here."