Help us save lives in memory of Ella
WOULD you send your child swimming without a lifeguard? No. So why are we sending our children to schools without defibrillators?
This is an open letter from one mother to all other parents and carers of Coventry.
Did you know defibrillators are not mandatory in schools? Yet if your child goes into cardiac arrest and the school doesn’t have one, should the emergency services be delayed, survival chances could be as low as two per cent.
Whereas if your school has a defibrillator and it is administered immediately, your child’s chance of survival is 90 per cent.
Every day our children go to school, it isn’t optional. Not every school purchases a defibrillator and yet not having one really is the difference between life and death.
I want to share a story with you all about why we need to act.
On the morning of July 14, 2014, Ella Bury passed away suddenly after suffering a cardiac arrest in bed. Despite CPR performed by her mum, and the quick response of the ambulance service, she couldn’t be saved.
Ella was a bright, healthy, happy 17-year-old who lived life to the full. She never suffered any heart problems during her life and the cause of her death was never found. Ella is missed every day by so many.
In Ella’s memory, her mum Karen has set up a fund to raise money so defibrillators can be placed in local communities. This is a mother who has lost her daughter and in the wake of that terrible tragedy has used her strength to give back.
I knew Ella. I watched her grow up at my local netball club and no mother should ever have to go through what Karen has.
Karen has said to me and to others that she believes if a defibrillator had been close, Ella would still be with us today.
Karen recently got a call to confirm one of the defibrillators placed in Ella’s memory had saved a life. Read that sentence again – it saved a life!
We need to stand with Karen and ensure schools have this preventative equipment.
In October 2017, I set up a fundraising event called Dance2Beat to raise money for a defibrillator to be placed between two schools in Coventry. We raised over £2,000 with a three-hour danceathon in Ella’s memory.
I am now taking Dance2Ella’s Beat on the road and I want schools to hold a danceathon to raise the money needed for a defibrillator.
All funds raised will go to Ella’s fund and towards the cost of a defibrillator and training.
So why do I need your help? There can be resistance to defibrillators – over costs, training and even convenience, as well as the belief they are better placed in the community as schools are not always open.
I need you to help me open up the conversation and ask schools to commit to having defibrillators and doing a Dance2Ella’s Beat.
A lifeguard is a preventative measure, as are defibrillators. We need to change our mindset and intervene with this equipment now, rather than when it is too late.
I would like to work with head teachers to support them in getting defibrillators into their schools through Ella’s fund. Any head teachers who want to get involved with this movement, please get in touch. I will help every school facilitate the sessions and do all I can to promote it. SADS UK is the charity that worked with Ella’s mum Karen to get this fantastic equipment into the community.
I also need help from businesses. I will be hosting a ball for Ella in December and sponsorship for the event to help reduce the burden of cost to schools. We really do need our local businesses to get behind this cause.
Anyone interested in helping, contact me on sophie_gulliver@ hotmail.co.uk and add the subject as Dance2Ella’s Beat. Sophie Gulliver Coventry
Patience as new students settle in
WE have in Coventry two universities which contribute much to city life.
I am very pleased that Coventry University has been named as University of the Year for Student Experience in the latest Times and Sunday Times league table, with undergraduate applications rising by eight per cent for courses starting now.
At the University of Warwick, the range of student apprenticeships is expanding and new students began moving into campus accommodation over the weekend of September 22 and 23. A ‘Welcome Week’ induction programme for all new students ran before academic classes began on Monday, October 1.
This is all very good news, but some people newly arrived in the UK may be unfamiliar with our road rules, including driving on the lefthand side of the road. Both universities, I understand, take this very seriously, and brief students on the possible dangers. But I hope that any resident travelling nearby will also be careful, especially over the next few weeks. Councillor Marcus Lapsa (Con) Westwood ward
Current crisis in the Labour Party
THE present crisis and division in the Labour Party is a disaster for Britain.
At this time many of the rights of ordinary people are being worn away despite our modern prosperity. Capitalism is securely in the driving seat.
We need a new, successful, Attleetype party to safeguard the position of workers and ordinary people.
It must be middle of the road and not Marxist, for Communism brings the death of democracy.
We need sensible argument, not rubbish about Brexit and racism about Israel.
The problem is to find a leader with charisma who accepts the role that capitalism plays. P Wilson Nuneaton
City’s pavements are like patchwork
I CANNOT understand why if we, the public, report uneven pavements, it takes someone with a clipboard, a can of coloured paint, a car/van to make a note of the irregularities, to then go back to the office to price up the job, only to find they have spent the allocated monies already, so then the paint fades to nothing until next time.
All is needed is a worker with a bit of savvy and a barrow and instructions – job done in one swoop. Perhaps the chap with the clipboard could don the overalls and do the job!
Also, why do we have to put up
with ‘hopscotch’ (or should that be hotchpotch?) – pavements? Why not relay the slabs? There must be trillions of them in the council’s store yard or at least there should be, judging by the miles of pavements that have been ripped up, smashed up and gone to landfill I expect.
Funny you don’t seem to see a patchwork outside the Council House/Broadgate, only lovely shrubs and flower baskets. We make do with weeds.
Come on council, spend our money wisely please. We appreciate you doing something –but why not properly? I am sure your workers would rather do a job to be proud of, not a bodge job; job satisfaction and all that. K J Clarke Wyken
We must honour Mo
IT is high time there was a statue of Mo Mowlam in Coventry.
She was a great person who helped to get a peace settlement in Northern Ireland. Ian Harris Radford