Latest defibrillator site bring Aidan’s total to six
A WIDNES teenager has unveiled two more lifesaving defibrillators at locations across Halton and is busy fundraising for another one.
Aidan Jackson, 17, of Francis Close in Ditton, has been raising money to purchase the equipment for a year.
In May, Aidan unveiled three of these machines across Widnes, including at New Life Church on Hale Road, Halebank.
Two others were installed at Panache Salon on Derby Road, with a third at the Wellington Inn on Prescot Road.
A fourth was also purchased and sited in Widnes and now the fifth and sixth machines – which deliver electric current to the heart when a person suffers a cardiac arrest – have been installed.
The fifth is at The Mersey Hotel in West Bank in Widnes, while a sixth has been installed at Halton Haven Hospice on Barnfield Avenue in Murdishaw, Runcorn.
The Halton Haven Hospice defibrillator is the first one Aidan has placed in Runcorn.
Cllr Margaret Horabin, Halton’s mayor, attended both unveilings and joined Aidan in cutting the ribbons.
The sixth defibrillator was unveiled at the start of Halton Haven Hospice’s Tea At Three event, and Aidan ran a tombola stall to help raise funds for another machine.
Following the tombola and a donation from a generous individual at The Mersey Hotel, Aidan is now only £250 away from reaching his fundraising target for a seventh defibrillator.
Aidan has thanked the mayor for attending the unveiling, staff at The Mersey Hotel and Halton Haven Hospice, and Janet Graham from North West Ambulance Service.
He has raised more than £30,000 for good causes over the past fourand-a-half years.
His initiatives have included raising funds for the Olivia Alice Foundation in memory of his close friend who died in 2014.
He has also swam the length of the English Channel in a pool over the space of three months, has collected sleeping bags, coats, warm clothing and toiletries for the homeless in Liverpool and then distributed them, as well as filling the home of Widnes Vikings with nearly 11,000 teddy bears which were then sent off to children around the world.