Heart charity donates defibrillator to Sunderland AFC
A charity has presented a defibrillator to Sunderland AFC, as part of its campaign to install the devices across the area.
Defibrillators are used to help re-start the heart after a person suffers a cardiac arrest.
The donation, to the Stadium of Light, has come from the Red Sky Foundation which was established by Sergio and Emma Petrucci.
They pledged to do all they could for heart health and awareness, after the life of their daughter, Luna, was saved by teams at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. Luna was born with a heart condition and is now fit and well.
Sergio Petrucci, Charity founder.
One of the charity's main aims is to distribute defibrillators to communities.
Since the pandemic, it says it has provided more than eighty across South Shields, Sunderland, Durham and Newcastle.
The latest donation, to the Stadium of Light, will be installed outside the ticket office, for use by supporters before and after matches, as well as concert-goers and the wider community if required.
Sergio describes defibrillators as "the difference between life and death".
He explains: "I wouldn't really be happy until we've got a defibrillator every five hundred metres. It's so important to me to get so many out there in the community.
"It's a remarkable statistic that only one in ten people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest so if we can get these defibrillators out there, and somebody can start urgent CPR straight away, we're giving them the best chance of survival."