Hearts for Herts

The Charity was officially launched as Hearts for Herts in 2021 by Justin Honey-Jones who was our guest speaker at the Club on Sunday and is Chair and a Trustee of the Charity. He is employed full time as a paramedic.

It became a registered charity with the Charity Commission in 2022. The aim of the Charity is to champion defibrillators for public access along with bleed kits across Hertfordshire.

Their lifesaver courses are free and available to all. It is a 3.5 hours in duration and teaches life saving skills including CPR, how to use a defibrillator safely, how to help someone who is choking, heart attacks, unconsciousness and how to use a public access bleed control kit.

The Charity fundraises to ensure there are lifesaving public access defibrillators available in our communities with 24/7 access and to also co-locate bleed control kits and include them alongside defibrillators.

They ensure the life-saving equipment is always emergency ready by regularly checking the equipment, responding to activations from the Circuit after use in 999 calls and replacing consumables when needed.

It is a volunteer run and paramedic led lifesaving charity based locally in Hoddesdon.

All of the public access defibrillators are registered on the National Circuit which enables the East of England Ambulance Service to identify the nearest defibrillator to the 999 caller and send them to collect it to buy valuable time until an ambulance can arrive.

They have installed the first solar and wind powered defibrillator in Barclay Park, Hoddesdon and installed a solar powered defibrillator cabinet  at Panshanger Park in Hertford. This was activated within 8 days of installation following a 999 call.

Photograph attached shows Chair and Trustee Justin Honey-Jones and fellow Trustee, Rab Harley attending at Brickendon on Sunday 26th September to speak to the members about the Charity.