Installation of defibrillators at Tandragee and Portadown community stores

Automated External Defibrillators (AED) are located at SPAR Tandragee and SPAR Seagoe, Portadown, and will be available for the community 24 / 7, thanks to the equipment being installed on the outside of the stores, providing essential access even when the stores are not open.

It means there are now 13 local SPAR and EUROSPAR stores in the area with defibrillators installed. Alongside the two newly installed, there are four at SPAR and EUROSPAR stores in Lurgan, four further devices at stores in Portadown, one at SPAR Laurencetown in Gilford, one at Willis’ SPAR, Annaghmore and one in Reid’s SPAR Foodhall in Richill.

The teams at the stores fundraised with their shoppers to raise the money to have the devices installed as part of Henderson Group’s Heart of our Community campaign, an initiative to get Northern Ireland’s largest network of external defibrillators installed right in the heart of both urban and rural communities.

Every new device that is part of the campaign will be registered with The Circuit, the defibrillator network launched by the British Heart Foundation in partnership with the NHS, Microsoft and UK ambulance services, connecting every device to its local ambulance service and the public.

Bronagh Luke, Head of Corporate Marketing at Henderson Group which owns SPAR in Northern Ireland, and who spearheaded the defibrillator campaign added: “These defibrillators are easy to use, and the first port of call should always be 999. The Ambulance Service will talk the user through everything from locating the device, to CPR and use of it.

"As well as these local devices in recent weeks, we also have 10 more being installed in the coming weeks, which will bring our total number of Automated External Defibrillators installed outside SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO branded stores in Northern Ireland to 275, providing a potential lifeline to those who may need it when an emergency happens.

"We know that 17 lives have been saved thanks to our defibrillators, and we hope to see many more installed in the coming years.”

For more on SPAR NI’s Heart of the Community campaign, go to spar-ni.co.uk/heart-of-our-community