Community rings changes with defibrillators for old town kiosks

Kirriemuir Community Council is continuing its drive to fund three new defibrillators for the town which will go in redundant local phone boxes.

The old kiosks at Maryton, Southmuir, outside the Newton Hotel, and Northmuir, outside the Woodville Inn, are to be brought back into use for the lifesaving equipment.

They were each bought for £1 after being declared surplus to requirements by BT.

Already £2,000 for Northmuir automated external defibrillator (AED) has been secured from Kirriemuir Regeneration Group. Kirriemuir First Responders and St John’s Ambulance gifted the group £600 towards the Maryton project with the rest of the funding for that site secured through a crowdfunding page in conjunction with Angus Council.

A quiz is being staged on

Sunday afternoon in the Newton Hotel which the community council hopes will help get the third defibrillator fund over the line.

Heather Kelly of the community council said: “We bought the telephone boxes two years ago and always intended to use them to house defibrillators, or even a small library.

“There will be fundraising as part of the town’s late night shopping event this week and all of the proceeds will go towards the refurbishment of the phone boxes and the funding of the defibrillator.

“In a rural community like Kirriemuir it is vitally important to have accessible equipment available for immediate use.

“When someone has a cardiac arrest following a heart attack, their life can be saved if their heart is restarted quickly using an AED.”