Rothley Park leading the way in life-saving training
A ROTHLEY cricket club is leading the way in being heartsafe after it received training from a charity setup in memory of a teenager from the village. Rothley Park Cricket Club, one of the leading advocates of the Leicestershire Heart Awareness in Cricket programme, invited specialist volunteers from the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT) to deliver CPR and defibrillator training to players and club staff. Heart Awareness in Cricket is a collaboration between Leicestershire County Cricket Club, JHMT and Heartwize, and aims to provide all Leicestershire Everards Premier League clubs with support, advice and guidance so that they can access funding for a defibrillator and preventative sudden heart death training. Among those learning the vital life-saving skills was former England, Leicestershire and Lancashire county cricketer Philip DeFreitas, who is head coach for the Rothley club. Philip said: “All players, whatever their age, should know the drill – that you contact the emergency services, use a defib and commence CPR. We all need to be prepared.”
JHMT medical lead and former intensive care consultant Dr Mike Ferguson said: “Providing this sort of advice, expertise and support is exactly what the JHMT is all about.”
Steve Thomason from the club added: “We hope to have even more training on offer for coaches and other players later in the year.”
The club – which has more than 100 youngsters in its junior section – has strong links with JHMT, which was set up following the death of Rothley teenager Joe Humphries, who died of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome.
Over the past years, the club has raised money for the trust through its annual Party in the Park event which took place at the end of August.
JHMT offers free training to sports clubs across Leicestershire. To find out more about the trust or to enquire about training, visit www. jhmt.org.uk