Lifesaving equipment installed at equine charity near Totnes

The Mare and Foal Sanctuary has installed new life-saving equipment to benefit the local community. 

As The Mare and Foal Sanctuary welcomes more visitors to its Education and Equestrian Centre near Totnes this year, the charity has installed new life-saving equipment to benefit the local community. 

Miniature Shetland Sir Didymus checks out the new defibrillator at The Mare and Foal Sanctuary's Coombe Park base

Thanks to donations from its supporters, the Sanctuary has purchased a defibrillator and is training staff to give lifesaving first aid.  

When someone has a cardiac arrest, it’s vital they receive CPR and defibrillation as quickly as possible. A defibrillator can help restart their heart while waiting for the emergency services to arrive. Not only will this protect the staff, volunteers and visitors at the Mare and Foal Sanctuary, but will also protect the wider community. 

Coombe Park is one of five Mare and Foal Sanctuary sites in Devon which provides life-long, life changing loving care and support to foals, ponies and horses in need. Its Equine Assisted Service* team is based at Coombe Park and offers the chance for people to benefit from a special connection with animals through learning and activities. 

The site is open to the public on certain days throughout the year to meet some of the Sanctuary’s equine ‘stars’ and learn more about the vital work of the charity. 

The defibrillator was bought through a match-funded government scheme offered by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The programme was run by the Community Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Grant Team which provided the equipment at a reduced rate. 

The Mare and Foal Sanctuary’s Chief Operating Officer Iain Wylie said: "We chose Coombe Park as the first of our sites to have a defibrillator as it receives the most visitors. As an Education and Equestrian Centre offering equine assisted services, we regularly work with vulnerable people, many of whom have additional health needs.

"We want to offer the best care and support to all our visitors and staff, so we plan to install defibrillators at every one of our sanctuary sites in the future."

The British Heart Foundation has stressed the importance of having easy-to-access equipment like this throughout local communities. It says: "Every minute without CPR and a defibrillator reduces survival by up to 10 per cent."

Stewart Molyneux, Fundraising Manager at The Mare and Foal Sanctuary said: "We are really pleased to be able to offer the use of this lifesaving equipment to members of the local community, our supporters and visitors.  

"The DHSC worked with a charity called London Hearts to provide the defibrillator and now it’s been installed it has also been registered on the national defibrillator network called the ‘Circuit’, which lists all the publicly accessible AEDs and can be searchable by postcode.

"This is also used by the Southwest Ambulance Service for whenever they may need access too."

The Defib finder register offers this advice: "If you come across someone who is unconscious, unresponsive, not breathing or not breathing normally they are in cardiac arrest. The most important thing is to call 999 and start CPR to keep blood flowing to the brain and around the body.

"If you are on your own, do not stop performing CPR to get a defibrillator, if possible, send someone else. When you call 999, the operator can tell you if there is a public access defibrillator nearby and the pin to gain access."

More details are available at: www.mareandfoal.org