UK Government Minister Lord Duncan joined the team of staff in a Kinross butchers shop to congratulate them on leading the way on a national initiative to raise money for community defibrillators.
The idea behind the “Butchers at the Heart of the Community” initiative, supported by Scottish Craft Butchers, the Scotch Butchers Club and Save a Life Scotland, was started by butcher Pamela Hunter who runs Hunters of Kinross with her husband Iain.
Luke Graham, MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, joined Lord Duncan to hear about the aim of the initiative which encourages people living in communities throughout Scotland to be ready and confident in delivering CPR for someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest.
In December 2016, a regular and popular customer of Hunters picked up his order and headed off to celebrate the new year. He never returned to the shop after suffering a cardiac arrest.
After losing a good friend and customer, Pamela felt that as a small business they needed to do something for their community.
Since then, she has worked tirelessly in her community, running raffles and special events to raise funds to buy a 24-hour publicly accessible defibrillator, which is now located outside their shop.
Starting the campaign
Following the success of the fund-raising project by Hunters of Kinross, the initiative is now being rolled out across Scotland.
The Scottish Craft Butchers and The Scotch Butchers Club, run by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and its network of over 400 butcher members, have partnered with Save a Life Scotland to encourage members to take part.
So far more than 30 Scottish Butchers have signed up to the campaign.
The project is not only about providing a defibrillator to communities but training for both staff and customers on how to use them and deliver CPR.
Mrs Hunter said: “We are delighted with the response from butchers around the country to the initiative and to have the support of Lord Duncan and Luke Graham is fantastic.
Cardiac arrest in Scotland is much more common than we first thought. There is an average of 70 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each week and on average only four people survive. We wanted to help do something about this.
Douglas Scott, chief executive of Scottish Craft Butchers said: “We are not all experts in knowing what to do in cases of emergency.
“We need to dispel the fear caused by a lack of knowledge. There is no need to be a paramedic; we just need to know what to do and address lack of confidence.
“Butchers care about their customers and this is just another example of how much they matter to them.”
