YOU COULD SAVE A LIFE WITH A FREE DEFIBRILLATOR

During the close season a number of Scottish clubs were contacted direct by the 'Craig Hodgkinson Trust' with the offer of providing a FREE defibrillator and associated training for their club.


To date a number of clubs have taken up this very generous offer and this life saving piece of equipment has now been donated to the following clubs Hillhead/Jordanhill, West of Scotland, Cartha QP, Selkirk, Hawick, Melrose, Lasswade, Hamilton, Arbroath and Watsonians, with a number of other clubs still to receive theirs.

The 'Craig Hodgkinson Trust' was set up in the memory of the late Craig Hodgkinson, a Royal Marine, who died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition whilst playing rugby for the Royal Navy. Craig was a well kent rugby figure especially in the west of Scotland where on graduating from schoolboy rugby at the High School of Glasgow he played for GHK and Glasgow Hawks over a period of nine years.

The Trust believe that Craig's life may have been saved had a defibrillator been available and as such they are committed to providing defibrillators to sporting venues throughout Scotland, and on the back of placing defibrillators in the above named clubs the Trust would like to extend this offer to all Scottish rugby clubs on a first come, first served basis.

The Trust have a strong partnership with the British Heart Foundation Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service and through these partnerships Community Resuscitation Development Officers can offer advice and support to clubs in all aspects of defibrillator use. Scottish Rugby encourages our member clubs to get involved in this initiative by writing to the 'Craig Hodgkinson Trust', PO Box 14, Glasgow, G63 9WH.

This article was posted on 28-Oct-2009, 15:42 by Hugh Barrow.