Thursday, March 2, was significant for the united community in Pembroke, led by Mayor, Clr. Dennis Evans, with former Mayor, Melanie Phillips, and town clerk, Suzie Thomas, who all welcomed to the Town Hall enthusiastic citizens, together with firefighters and Police Community Support Officers.

The occasion was the commissioning and training in the use of two fully-automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for use by any citizen at any time. One will cover the west end of Main Street and the other the east end, providing the most advanced, vital life-saving equipment in the event of cardiac arrest. These locations are known to the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.

There are over 8,000 recorded incidents of life-threatening cardiac arrests throughout the Principality of Wales in a year. Without immediate CPR and defibrillation, survival is as low as three per cent.

These defibrillators in Pembroke have been supplied by CARIAD (www.mycariad.org), a leading charity in Wales with a passion and mission to see AEDs in schools and public locations throughout the Principality. Cariad was initiated by Anthony and Sherilyn Hamilton-Shaw following incidents of cardiac arrest in schools near their home.

Pembroke’s community has raised £2,450, of which a proportion has been awarded by Awards for All (advice-line is 0300 123 0735: www.awardsforall.org.uk/wales).

The training was effectively delivered by Anthony (Cariad) and Pembroke Dock’s firefighters, who together encouraged everyone and gave them increased confidence. Wholehearted thanks and appreciation goes to them all. Firefighters now are equipped with AEDs and may, on occasions, be nearer to an incident of cardiac arrest than an ambulance.

Whilst ever thankful for these exemplary, outstanding emergency services, the reality of most emergencies is that it will be a citizen from any walk of life, adult or child, who will be the first at the scene. We would therefore wholeheartedly endorse Cariad’s mission and passionately encourage any community to regard the provision of a fully-automated external defibrillator with 24-hour accessibility as a priority consideration.