Katies Heart Appeal Receives Pride of Essex Award!

06 Dec 2020

Last week Katie received a Pride of Essex Award for Katie’s Heart Appeal for continuing to place defibrillators in the community.

Katie’s Heart Appeal Defibrillators in the Community campaign started when Katie had been rushed into A&E majors by ambulance Christmas 2012 as she was in an irregular dangerously high heart rhythm again.

Katie was admitted for 24/7 monitoring for 5 days under the guidance of her cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Her heart just could not stay in a regular rhythm despite her medication and emergency treatment.

One morning on the ward round Katie asked the consultant “why do I have to go to A&E every time, why can’t I just come straight to the children’s ward”

The consultant replied “Because that’s where all the life saving medication is, and where we keep the defibrillators”

Katie said “well then you should have defibrillators everywhere”

The consultant agreed and said to Katie “yes you are right”.

Once Katie was out of danger and was allowed to return home. Katie’s family started looking to see if there were any public access defibrillators local to them. After contacting the Arrhythmia Alliance and AED Locator, they were informed not only were there no Public Access Defibrillators in Stanford, there were none in Thurrock.

Fast forward 10 years on, Katies Heart Apppeal now have their own group of Team Katie Guardians who continue to maintain the defibrilaltors they’ve managed to install in the community.

The residents of Maple and Stanford Park were also highly commended for raising an amazing amount of money for Katies Heart Appeal at the Stanford Park Christmas Lights last year that enabled them to purchase 18 defibrillators and 4 cabinets for their local community.

In total Katie’s Heart Appeal has donate 45 defibrillators and 12 public access cabinets, ensuring that every school in Thurrock now has a defibrillator.

We love working with Katie’s Heart Appeal Team and It’s always an absolute pleasure to supply you with such lifesaving equipment for Essex.

Thank you for choosing London Hearts and congratulations!

We welcome applications from any organisation or charity around the UK! Apply online here

Have a project in mind? Give us a call on 02070432493 or drop us an email at info@londonhearts.org