CHILDREN in Hartford helped raise £600 to buy a life-saving defibrillator for a school who lost a pupil to a heart condition.

The Young PTA at St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School was set up four years ago to raise funds for a variety of causes.

This year children chose to raise money for the Oliver King Foundation, which was founded after the death of 12-year-old Oliver King.

Oliver died from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, a hidden heart condition that kills 12 young people a week.

Anne Weir, head teacher at St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School, said: “The school had a visit from Oliver’s dad, Mark, who told us all about the condition and the fact that Oliver had suffered a cardiac arrest while taking part in a swimming race.

“After Mark’s talk, the children voted unanimously to raise funds to provide a defibrillator to the school which previously didn’t have one at all.”

The Young PTA group, which made up of children aged five to 11 with a small additional group of youth leaders aged 11 to 14, raised £600, but this fell short of the £1,000 needed to buy the defibrillator.

Thankfully Redrow Homes stepped in to donate the final £400.

Ms Weir said: “The children were fantastic at their own fundraising and had raised £600, but the funds fell short of the target so the donation from Redrow has meant that we’ve been able to purchase a defibrillator that could save the life of a child or any adults at the school.

“Once we’d bought the defibrillator we had a special assembly at school and invited Mark along so he could see the results of Oliver’s legacy.”

Caroline Thompson-Jones, area sales manager for Redrow, attended the school’s special assembly.

She said: “We’ve been helping out various causes in Hartford for a couple of years now and when the school contacted us about this, we knew we had to help.

“It’s great to know that we could boost the sterling fundraising efforts of the children at the school and now there is equipment on site that could actually save a life.”

Redrow has installed 110 defibrillators across its own housing developments across the UK, as well as in the company’s divisional offices, giving staff, contractors and the local community access to the equipment in the event of a medical emergency.

The company was awarded with the Outstanding Organisation Award at the North West Construction Safety Group (NWCSG) Health and Safety Awards 2016.