CAMPAIGNERS who want to give everyone in Barrhead access to a defibrillator have been raising plenty of smiles...by choosing to install the lifesaving devices outside FUNERAL PARLOURS.

The latest public access defibrillator (PAD) to be gifted to the town has been put in place at the Co-operative Funeralcare office in Paisley Road.

Another of the devices had already been installed outside the D. Moodie & Co funeral home in Cross Arthurlie Street.

READ MORE: Campaign group adds two more defibrillators to Barrhead

And campaign organisers insist staff at both undertakers were happy to help out...even though the defibrillators could be bad for business.

Douglas Yates, chairman of the Levern Valley Defibrillator Community Partnership (LVDCP), told the Barrhead News: “I was well aware that locating the PADs on the premises of undertakers would raise many smiles and comments.

“It was a conscious decision on my part to get people talking about the defibrillators but much more important was the location of these businesses.

“We need PADs at reasonable intervals throughout the town. The thought was for a ‘ribbon’ of PADs through our main thoroughfares, such as Cross Arthurlie Street, with locations at D. Moodie & Co, St Andrew’s House, the United Services Club, the Cross Stobs Inn and Barrhead Fire Station.

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“We should be regarding PADs as essential items of lifesaving equipment, just as fire extinguishers are.”

There are now five PADs installed across Barrhead, thanks to the efforts of the LVDCP.
Ultimately, the charity hopes to have 30 of the devices in place.

Chris Hughes, a LVDCP trustee, said: “This is the fifth PAD to be installed by the charity and we have plans for several more to ensure they are installed at roughly equal distances throughout the town.

“We believe this is essential to save lives.”

A spokesperson for Co-operative Funeralcare added: “We are fully supportive of this initiative and have offered our premises for training purposes.

“We will do what we can to help.”

Members of LVDCP are also offering free Heart Start Defibrillator Awareness courses to anyone who wishes to learn how to do CPR and operate a PAD device.

Mr Yates said: “We are very grateful to those organisations who have offered free lets of their properties to conduct these two-hour training sessions.”

The LVDCP project recently received a £2,000 grant from East Renfrewshire Council’s ‘Better Barrhead’ participatory budgeting event.

Community groups, voluntary projects and non-profit organisations had the opportunity to bid for a share of a £100,000 cash pot and present the projects that would be supported if they were successful.

Local residents were then asked to cast their votes for different bidders and LVDCP was among the groups with the highest number of votes.