Blackpool's Halfway House pub installs lifesaving defibrillator after raising £1,500

The Halfway House, on St Anne’s Road, South Shore, fitted the device as part of an initiative by pub chain Joseph Holt.

The regional family business has already put the life-saving devices in some of its 127 pubs across the North West, with the Half Way House one one of the first to get involved.

Paul Spink, manager of the Halfway House, said: “Just before Christmas we raised £1,500 from a raffle for the defibrillator and we’ve just managed to install it on the outside of the pub.

"It was a great effort to raise that amount and the good thing is that the defibrillator won’t just help our own customers, it’s there for the local community in this part of South Shore.

"The nearest one is on Highfield Road, which is too far away in an emergency, when every second counts.”

Defibrillators work by delivering a shock to restart a heart after it stops beating following a cardiac arrest.

Some 30,000 people in the UK each year have a cardiac arrest out of hospital, and NHS data shows just 18.5 per cent of them survive.

If a defibrillator is used within the first vital few minutes of the heart stopping, it improves the chances of survival .

Mark Norbury, Joseph Holt pubs director, said: “Our pubs are often placed in the heart of communities.

“By installing defibrillators we can help save lives which might otherwise be lost because of lack of access to these machines.”