Scarborough accommodation providers fundraising to increase defibrillator numbers
It's to get more life saving equipment around the town
Accommodation providers in Scarborough are coming together to increase the number of defibrillators available.
They are fundraising to try and get more lifesaving equipment in the north and south sides of the town.
James Rusden, owner of the Toulson Court bed and breakfast in Scarborough, said: "A lot of visitors who come to the bed and breakfast out of season are retired and they like to have that security. We've spoken to someone this morning who's had a stroke but we've had people who've had heart attacks, even young people, and it's nice to know that it's there. Every time you watch a documentary with a helicopter it's always a defibrillator that's saved somebody's life.
"We've found it important that we looked at buying our own and putting it in for our security, our safety but also our guests' and then to raise money, through the bed and breakfast as an association, and put them in locations around us. We started that last year and we did fundraise enough money in the first year to purchase one which we're in the process of doing.
"There's around 170 of us in this Facebook group so we're just fundraising between us to put them up in both sides of Scarborough. I think the more and merrier and then we can look at other residential areas or tourist attractions, even if Peasholm Park you could have one on the side of the cafe or something. The more there is, the more they save lives and it's been proven."
James added that he has his own health problems which started years ago: "I was made redundant and then I became poorly and had several pains which I ended up going to the doctors who referred me for an MRI. They found I had stroke damage and two brain aneurysms, which is basically a bulge in your artery in your brain that can explode and really there's not a lot they can about it. You might have 20 or 30 seconds.
"People who are very close to us at the time had died from brain aneurysms and I went a bit off the rails with the medication I was on and everything to the stage where I was having panic attacks. I've built myself back up through song because it makes you happy so I sing all the time and it's why the defib, to me, is important because it's there on the wall if I ever need it."