Torquay Lions help save lives

THE Torquay Lions Club has chipped in for the purchase of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), which has been installed at St Luke’s Anglican Church on Torquay’s Pride Street.

The church’s opportunity shop is visited by an increasing number of people – particularly the elderly – throughout the week, with the church hall also used as a space for events as well as weekly religious services.

Earlier this year, defibrillators were installed in three Surf Coast Shire Woolworths stores – Woolworths Torquay, Woolworths Torquay North and Woolworths Warralily – as part of a nation-wide commitment to treating sudden cardiac arrest.

An estimated 20,000 Australians suffer a cardiac arrest outside a hospital every year, with the survival rate for those sufferers approximately 10 per cent.

The AED at St Luke’s has been purposely fitted in a central, accessible location which can be used by an operator in the op shop, church or church hall.

Defibrillators that have been registered as being located in Torquay with Ambulance Victoria include the Torquay Angling Club, Torquay College and Peppers The Sands Resort.