Joseph Holt Brewery Installs Defibrillators in Over a Quarter of Its Pubs, Including Bolton
Key Highlights :
Joseph Holt Brewery, a leading brewery with 173 years of history in the same family for six generations, has installed defibrillators in over a quarter of its pubs, including Bolton. After a yearlong fundraising appeal, 36 pubs owned by the brewery, including the Hare and Hounds in Stoneclough, now have the life-saving devices.
The North West Ambulance Service recently met with Joseph Holt pub managers and their staff at one of its popular pubs, The Woodthorpe in Prestwich, to mark the £53k donations which made this initiative possible. Mark Norbury, Joseph Holt pubs director, said: “Can there be any better way to support the surrounding community than literally installing a device that could make a difference between life and death?”
The installed machines are linked to `The Circuit`– the British Heart Foundation`s defibrillator network - which provides a nationwide overview of where the devices can be found. Numbered amongst the pubs which have installed the life-saving devices are The Fiveways in Stockport and the Half Way House in Blackpool, the first to install defibrillator.
The devices work by delivering a shock to restart a heart after it stops beating following a cardiac arrest. Community resuscitation development officer at North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), Jo Thwaites said: “It has been a pleasure to be able to support in such a fabulous venture. “To fundraise such a great sum of money in order to equip 36 Joseph Holt pubs in the North West with a community public access defibrillator is a remarkable achievement and we congratulate everyone involved for making this happen.”
Quick access to a defibrillator could be the difference between life and death, according to The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health . 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.
Joseph Holt Brewery's initiative to install defibrillators in over a quarter of its pubs, including Bolton, is a great example of how businesses can support their local communities. By donating to the appeal and equipping their pubs with these life-saving devices, they have undoubtedly made their communities safer and given people a chance to survive a cardiac arrest.