Roslin residents are a lot safer knowing they have a defib close to hand when needed

Taylor Wimpey East Scotland has donated a public access defibrillator (PAD) to the Royal British Legion in Roslin to benefit the community.

As part of a joint initiative with the British Heart Foundation (BHF), the homebuilder is donating PAD’s to communities to help people who suffer from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

During 2019, the BHF worked with Taylor Wimpey to train its employees in CPR skills and to provide every one of their building sites in the UK with a defibrillator.

While work is still ongoing at Sinclair Gardens, a spare defibrillator has been made available to the Royal British Legion in Roslin to help their campaign to have one installed in their club.

Members of the British Legion receive defibrillator from Taylor Wimpey’s Deryck Schendel

Taylor Wimpey has also committed to ensuring all of its defibrillators are registered on the national defibrillator network, which connects defibrillators to ambulance services so that in those crucial moments after a cardiac arrest they can be accessed quickly.

Deryck Schendel, Regional Health and Safety Advisor for Taylor Wimpey in Scotland, said: “ It’s so important that we give something back to the communities in which we’re building. Our partnership with the BHF is vitally important in helping to ensure that more defibrillators are available for people who might need them and we are proud to be able to make this equipment readily accessible in Roslin.”

Estelle Stephenson, at the British Heart Foundation, said: “More than 30,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital every year but less than one in ten survive. More people could be saved if everyone felt confident performing CPR and using a public access defibrillator.

“We are delighted that Taylor Wimpey has contributed to the aims of the BHF by making a public access defibrillator available in the Royal British Legion hall in Roslin. It could really make the difference between life and death.”

Ian Denholm, Chair of the British Legion Roslin branch, said: “We can’t thank Taylor Wimpey and the BHF enough for this defibrillator. While we hope that we don’t have to use it very often, it’s fantastic to know that we can access a defibrillator in the event of an emergency.”