A community sports club has officially welcomed a new defibrillator from a charity that makes sure the devices are more accessible for rural communities.

Monmouthshire Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club has officially installed a defibrillator with the help of the Henry Angell-James Memorial Trust at a site near Abergavenny.

The man the charity takes its name from sadly suffered a fatal heart attack in October 2017, aged just 54. He was driving home from work in Birmingham to his home in Shrewsbury at the time of the tragic incident. In his memory, Henry’s wife, Sally, decided to establish the Henry Angell-James Memorial Trust to find and install automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in communities which had previously been unable to fund them.

“We are extremely grateful to the Henry Angell-James Memorial Trust for supplying this essential piece of equipment,” said Ross Murray, Chair of the Monmouthshire Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club.

“Henry was a great friend and an enthusiastic opponent across the net on a grass court.”

So far, the Trust has installed over 130 AEDs in various locations across the country including rural areas where ambulance access can be challenging, community sports centres and town and city centres.

It also believes there can never be an abundance of defibrillators with public access and the new AED in Penpergwm is available 24 hours a day for anyone to use, not just club members. The club said it recognises its role in providing the important access for the whole community.

Defibrillators are also incredibly effective at boosting a person’s chance of survival. When an AED is combined with effective CPR, the chance of surviving a cardiac arrest jumps from just 6 per cent to 74 per cent. Roughly 80 per cent of cardiac arrests happen in the home, which is why it is crucial that devices are available close to where people live.

There are around 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year in the UK, and without immediate treatment up to 95 per cent of them will be fatal. Heart disease itself is still one of the country’s leading causes of death and can happen to anyone, regardless of age or known health conditions.

The charity also works closely with the West Midlands Ambulance Service, which is the region where it was born, to deliver a basic understanding of CPR to communities across the areas in which it operates.

Remote communities like Penpergwm are commonly identified as those most in-need of donations of life saving equipment. Generally, this is due to an ageing rural population and being a further distance away from emergency units. Between 55 and 65 per cent of instances of cardiac arrest casualties are men aged over 65.

Present at the unveiling of the new defibrillator was Monmouthshire Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club Chair, Ross Murray, and Mrs Lindsey Dawson who led the fundraising awareness campaign.

Three generations of club members were also there to mark the momentous occasion. The Trust can be found in Facebook, Instagram and its website, hajmt.co.uk.