‘Life-saving’ equipment donated to Model school

Model Primary School principal Mrs Lyons and pupil Jenny Craig, receiving a Heart Sine defibrillator donated to the school by Jenny's parents. INCT 07-124-GR

Mark Craig works for HeartSine Technologies, a company who makes the life-saving equipment, in Belfast.

After receiving an AED (automated external defibrillator) from his employer at the end of last year, Mark decided to give the machine to Model Primary School in Carrickfergus, where his daughter Jenny is a primary one pupil.

Speaking to the Times last week, Mr Craig explained: “I received the defib as a Christmas bonus at work, and thought it would be better going into one of the schools than sitting in the house.

“It’s something that’s going to be brought into schools in the future anyway and I have been told that there is a staff member who a first aider who is going to be trained how to use it.

“The defibrillators have both audio and visual prompts, plus there is a power pack to it can be used on an adult or a child.

“Last year, defibrillators saved over 200 lives around the world.”

In a statement, Model principal Joanne Lyons said the equipment would provide ‘peace of mind’ at the school.

“We would like to express our gratitude to Mr Craig and his employers HeartSine Technologies for the donation of the defibrillator, [which] provides us with another means of caring for everyone in our school community,” she said.

“Whilst we hope we will never have to use the defibrillator, we can have the added peace of mind that it is available should the situation arise.”