A North Yorkshire chemical company has completed its rollout of life-saving defibrillators with an installation on its own premises.
After installing four defibrillators in surrounding villages, providing around 9000 people access to the critical equipment, Airedale Chemical has installed a defibrillator in its offices providing potentially heart-starting opportunities to workers and residents in the Cross Hills area.
Based in a mixed residential and commercial area, there are almost 4000 people in the parish including many offices, industrial units and retailers.
Chris Chadwick, group CEO of Airedale Chemical, says: “We’ve been based here in Cross Hills since 1994 and have been providing defibrillating equipment to our communities since 2017. We’ve forged some fantastic links with local residents and businesses, so it has been important that we implement strong community relations schemes, which has included the cleaning of public facilities, educational support and donations to local schools and, of course, our defibrillator project.
“It seemed only right that we should also provide the opportunity to save lives for our staff, visitors and immediate neighbours and we’re over the moon that it is in place and functional, although we sincerely hope we’ll never have reason to use it.”
There are around 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in England each year and for every minute that CPR or a defibrillator is not applied, chances of survival decrease by 10%.
Receptionist, Louise Holmes, adds: “It feels great to know that if anyone should fall ill, we’re able to improve their chances of survival by up to 90% by having immediate access to a defibrillator. We’re also excited to receive the training on how best to use it. It’s am empowering feeling to know we now have the tools needed to potentially save the lives of colleagues and friends.”
The Airedale Foundation was launched by the Airedale Group in 2017 and acts as the charitable arm to help community groups and causes in their region, including the rollout of defibrillators.
Airedale Chemical was established in 1973 and provides chemicals and contract manufacturing to markets including agriculture, dairy, water treatment and waste management.
