The Scan Film or Store team with their new defibrillatorSo you may remember the rather dramatic blog post we wrote in November last year about our colleague Sophie. A few months before, at the age of just 28, she had collapsed at home in front of her 2-year-old daughter. For no reason that anyone can explain, she’d had a cardiac arrest.

Thankfully Sophie’s husband was there and was not only able to call an ambulance but to perform CPR until they arrived with a defibrillator and could shock her heart before taking her to the Bristol Heart Hospital.

Sophie’s experience shocked (honestly, no pun intended) all of us and we decided that we wanted to do something to make a small difference locally, as part of our 10th birthday celebrations. 

Sophie set up a JustGiving page with the aim of raising the £1500 needed to buy a public access defibrillator (AED) for Woodlands Court Business Park, where the Scan Film or Store HQ is located.

You guys are the best

The community stepped up with even more enthusiasm than we could have hoped for. Friends, family and other businesses on the estate and beyond pledged their support. The Bridgwater Mercury printed the story to spread the word. At SFS we chose not to send Christmas cards, instead donating the money we’d have spent to Sophie’s cause.

Before long we had hit our target – but the figure kept on growing. In the end the total raised stood at nearly £2,500. Amazing!

A new top quality defibrillator suitable for adults and children is now installed in a secure wall case at Woodlands Court thanks to Integrity Electrical in Bristol, who kindly installed it at no charge. London Hearts came along to give us all specialist training on how and when to use it, and several of the other businesses on the estate joined in.

Funding research and care

Smashing our fundraising target also means we have cash left over to donate to the Bristol Heart Institute at the BRI and to SADS, a charity that raises awareness and does research into sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, also known as sudden adult death syndrome. 

We know that this post doesn’t contain your usual dose of document storage and scanning related tips, puns and general silliness, but we hope you’ll excuse the diversion. After all, cardiac arrest could affect any of us – and we might not all be as lucky as Sophie was.

Sophie’s JustGiving page is now closed so if you’d like to donate then please do so directly to one of the charities we’ve mentioned. And if you want to find out more about SADS please visit the SADS website.