Case Study - Abbots Langley School

Abbots Langley school receives life-saving equipment

When Wayne Pope died suddenly just ten days after his 30th birthday, a heart defibrillator could have saved his life. Now that vital piece of equipment has been presented to an Abbotts Langley primary school to ensure its staff and pupils could be saved in similar circumstances.

Wayne died in 2005 from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS), a rare condition that affects apparently healthy people. Since then, his parents, John and Jeanette, and his brother, Glynn, have been raising money for the charity they set up in his name, Wayne's Fund. With the money they collect, they buy heart defibrillators to donate to local schools.

Glynn visited Divine Saviour Primary School, in Broomfield Rise, where he made the charity's sixth donation to head teacher Philip Gibbs on Friday 1st May 2010. “It's a pleasure for me to put something back into the community.” said Glynn. It was Pauline O'Brien, a parent governor at the school, who first broached estate agent Glynn about a defibrillator for the school, after they met when he went to value her home. Pauline, who has two children, Conor, eight, and Hannah, six, at the school, said: “It seemed like a very worthwhile piece of equipment the school could have and not just to help children and staff but the wider community.”

Each defibrillator, from the national charity the Community HeartBeat Trust, costs around £1100, or £1725 to include the external yellow AED cabinet. To raise money for the Wayne’s fund charity, a bike ride has been organised every year between August 1 and August 10, the dates of Wayne's birthday and death. This year's event will take place on August 1, on what would have been Wayne’s 35th birthday. Glynn has also spent time before Christmas stacking turkeys at a branch of Sainsbury's in Watford to raise money and promote awareness of SADS. Glynn, who works for Your Move in Abbots Langley, said: “SADS is so common and it can happen to anyone at any time at any age. If one of these machines were available when my brother passed away, things would have been very different. We don't want families to go through what we have been through. If we save just one life, everything we have done is worthwhile.”

Wayne's Fund has also entered a partnership with the ambulance service, who will provide training to staff every time a school now receives a defibrillator. Philip Gibbs, head teacher of Divine Saviour, said: “The health and safety of all the children and staff in the school is of paramount importance to us so we're happy to receive training and the use of this new defibrillator.”

The defibrillator is the sixth to be handed to local schools, with equipment already presented to St Michael's Catholic High School, Garston; St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary School, Garston; Francis Combe Academy, Garston; Mount Pleasant Lane School, Bricket Wood; and Cavendish School, Hemel Hempstead.