A PUBLIC access defibrillator will be fitted within metres of the finish line of a weekly athletics event in the New Year after the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust agreed to provide funding.

Volunteers who operate the Dunfermline Parkrun, which attracts more than 100 participants on average to Pittencrieff Park every Saturday morning, applied for cash to install a potentially life-saving device within three minutes of the finishing line.

The devices give the best chance of surviving a cardiac arrest and, thanks to a life-saving campaign from the Press, three have been installed in Dunfermline City Centre.

The Press launched our “Take Heart” campaign last year calling for more public access defibrillators in the town and more CPR training.

While there are around 20 defibrillators in and around Dunfermline only one – at Asda’s Halbeath store – was available to the public.

But now, thanks to our campaign and the Rotary Club of Dunfermline, the Mary Leishman Foundation and Fife Council’s Common Good Fund, who each pledged £1,400, defibrillators are available 24/7 at the Kingsgate Shopping Centre, the Guildhall Linen Exchange on High Street and the City Hotel in Bridge Street, after being installed last month.

The vital spark from the small, portable device can be the difference between life and death for the 30,000 people in the UK who have a cardiac arrest each year, and now users of the town’s much-loved Pittencrieff Park will have access to one.

Elaine Stewart, one the parkrun’s volunteers and of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, said: “Parkrun UK were keen for all parkruns to have a defibrillator within three minutes of the finish line.

"Although there are the new ones, like at the City Hotel, they are not within three minutes; by the time you run there and back, that could be five or six minutes, and that’s from the start line and not on another part of the course. 

“The more I thought about it, I thought that we had to raise some funds and that it made sense to have one for the community that is available 24/7 for all park users to use, and not just the runners.

“There has been cause for them to be used in events held at the Glen Pavilion, and we applied to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, who were more than happy to provide funding. We would like to provide training on how to use it for anybody who wants to know how to use one but we’re still at an early stage.

“On average, we probably have 112 people at the parkrun but we have been up as far as 177. That is a lot of people, before you add on those who are volunteering, and others who use the park.

“We hope to have it by the end of January or start of February and Fife Council have been great; they’ve said they’ll undertake maintenance of it.

“We don’t know where exactly it will be sited yet but the Glen is one of busiest public parks in Scotland. We hope it’s never used but knowing it’s there gives peace of mind.”