Two lifesaving additions have been made to a village near Sittingbourne following a donation from banking giant Lloyds.

With the help of its parents and teachers’ association (PTA), Tunstall Primary school has bought two defibrillators for both its own premises and one for the village.

The machines, which send an electrical surge into a person’s chest in the event of a heart attack, were bought with £500 from the bank’s Community Fund 2014 project combined with tireless PTA fundraising.

The parish will now install the equipment within reach of local amenities, including the church and village hall, so that in the event of an emergency it can be easily accessed by anyone who needs it.

Figures show that last year there were more than 30,000 cardiac arrests that occurred outside of a hospital environment, with only one in 10 of the sufferers surviving.

Furthermore, there were around 270 heart attacks in UK schools in the same period.

In the event of a cardiac arrest, immediate defibrillation can increase the chances of survival by up to 90%.

Tunstall head teacher Kate Hutchings said: “The Lloyds Bank Community Fund and the very hard work of our PTA have enabled us to provide potentially lifesaving equipment in the event of an emergency.

“Under guidance from the Department of Education published in November 2014, we are now able to meet the recommendations, and can
strategically deploy a
defibrillator within two minutes brisk walk from where the
majority of our children are.

“We are also very proud to have raised enough money to present our local parish council with a defibrillator of their own, which can be shared with the
wider community.”