Search for our ‘forgotten’ defibrillators

A campaign to find Oldham’s “forgotten” defibrillators and create a database of their locations has been launched by the North-West Ambulance Service.

The trust’s “Shoctober” campaign, launched yesterday, aims to raise awareness of the importance of public defibrillators and remind those who buy and install them to make the service aware of their location. It is believed there are thousands of the life-saving portable machines in the region not known to the NWAS, meaning the service is unable to direct a 999 caller to the nearest one in the event of a cardiac arrest.

Anyone who sees one is asked to take a selfie with it and tweet the photo via @NWambulance using the hashtag #findthedefib, giving as much information as possible regarding its location.