A THIRD life-saving defibrillator has been installed in St Bees, bringing the total up to three in the village through updating the use of the old telephone box at the railway station.

Just one year ago, the nearest public-use defibrillator was in Egremont – three miles away. The village decided to tackle the issue, and parish councillor Pam Argyle became project manager for the task of introducing the life-saving equipment to the area.

The first defibrillator was installed at the Seacote Hotel’s public car park last March, with the second being introduced to Seamill Lane junction last month (both with the access code C159), and the telephone box at St Bees railway station now making three (no access code is required).

Ms Argyle commented on the project to increase the coverage of defibrillators in the area, and said: “We saw there was an opportunity to provide public defibrillators, and have installed one at the beach toilets, one at Seamill Lane junction, and, just a few weeks ago, one in the disused telephone kiosk at the railway station.”

She explained that two of the locations were bought by the Parish Council, with the other being kindly donated by The British Heart Foundation via the St Bees First Responders.

Chairman of the parish council, Doug Sim, added: “These units are available for use by the public, and although the equipment is automatic and talks the responder through the procedure, training courses are to be run in the village for the public.”

Details of the training courses are still to be confirmed, however the parish council hope to release these soon, with as many training sessions offered as possible to help the community understand how to use the equipment – and how to save a life.

Visit the website at stbees.org.uk for more information.