Rural life-saving initiative

Campaign: Community act to provide defibrillator for walkers in Speyside

Campaigners are fighting to gather enough money to provide life–saving help for walkers on a popular Speyside tourist trail.

Visitors regularly cross the Dava Moor while following the route of a former railway line that runs between Forres and Grantown.

The remote community of 14 homes is more than eight miles from the closest town – raising concerns about the length of time

“This would provide a potentially life-saving aid”

aid could take to arrive in the event of a medical emergency.

For eight months, the Dava Moor Residents Association has been trying to address that by securing a defibrillator to install in a disused phone box in the community.

Now the group has turned to public donations to secure the £2,300 needed to buy the equipment, having had funding applications repeatedly turned down.

Group treasurer Zoe Howarth, who lives next to the phone box, said: “With the wind farms getting built in the area, we’ve had meetings with them about community benefit and put together a list of improvement projects we would like.

“W e ’ v e p u t i n applications but they’ve been rejected.

“We’re eight miles from Grantown and 14 miles from Forres so the response time for an ambulance is going to be more than five minutes.

“That meant a defibrillator was on the list. It wouldn’t only benefit our community but all the many visitors that use the Dava Way and go to Lochindorb.”

The exposed location of the phone box, which was disconnected two years ago due to low usage, has led to extra costs for the project in order to protect the equipment from freezing winter temperatures.

However, the booth has nonetheless been chosen to allow 24-hour access to the life-saving aid, with no post office, shop or pub available as an alternative.

It is estimated that 3,500 cardiac arrests happen outside of hospital every year in Scotland – with survival chances reducing by 10% for every minute that passes before help arrives.

Inverness and Nairn MSP Fergus Ewing has backed the residents association’s funding applications with letters of support.

He said: “This would provide a potentially lifesaving aid in a remote but popular part of Scotland.”

Donations can be made online at gofundme.com/thedavadefibproject

Photograph by Jason Hedges SAVE A LIFE: From left, Dave Macleod, Adam Howarth, Helen Dickinson, Zoe Howarth and Marion Robertson, of the Dava Moor Residents Association, which is fundraising to install a defibrillator in a former phone box due to emergency support fears.