Jayne Biggs, from Norfolk, and her husband Tony performed life-saving CPR on their daughter Violet after she suddenly went into cardiac arrest one evening in February 2013. Violet was just 7 years old at the time. Paramedics got to their house within seven minutes. They shocked Violet once with a defibrillator and performed CPR for a further two minutes.
Violet survived but if her parents hadn’t given her CPR for those initial seven minutes the outcome would have been very different.
Following her cardiac arrest Violet went onto spend a month in hospital, where she was diagnosed with a sudden death condition called Long QT Syndrome. She was given an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) that monitors the heart 24 hours a day and provides a shock if needed.
Once Violet recovered, Jayne began raising money to install public access defibrillators across Norfolk and Suffolk after discovering there was a shortage in the region. Jayne has now installed over 400 defibrillators through her charity Heart 2 Heart Norfolk and is raising funds for more. Jayne has also given thousands of people CPR and defibrillation training through her free community sessions and regularly goes into schools.
Why more public access defibs and training are needed
Jayne and Tony both worked in the offshore industry and had received first aid training, but Jayne says she ‘never expected’ that she would have to use it, let alone on her own child.
Jayne says: “People say to me, ‘We should get a defib because everyone around here is old’, but sudden cardiac arrest doesn’t discriminate against anyone, twelve people under 35 people die from sudden cardiac arrest every week.
“Danish player Christian Eriksen suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in the Euros, and he is the first person to play professional football again with an ICD.
“I have defibs used every single week and I know of four lives that have been saved from people who have contacted me. I have dozens of defibrillators used, but now with GDPR, unless someone contacts me, I don’t find out any information.
“Nearly every single defib you see across the country is there because a someone like me, or someone who has tragically lost someone, has raised money for one. They’re not government or NHS funded. If you see one and look at the box it will probably have a charity logo or a dedication sign to someone.”
Jayne says Violet’s cardiac arrest came as a complete shock.
“Violet was a lot fitter than most little girls, she competed in ballroom and Latin dance competitions, was very active in the Scouting Community and had never been poorly.”
How easyfundraising has helped
One of the ways Jayne raises vitals funds for Heart 2 Heart Norfolk is through easyfundraising. To date more than £300 has been raised to help her install vital public access defibrillators and offer free life-saving training.
Jayne says she always tells her friends and family to do their online shopping via easyfundraising as it ‘doesn’t cost them anything’ to raise funds.
“I say to them ‘it doesn’t cost you anything, it’s easy money’, for instance, I just booked my holiday through TUI via easyfundraising and raised £80 by doing nothing other than logging in via easyfundraising first. It’s such a good way to make money without the hard work. I’m 100% non-profitable so everything that’s raised stays in the community,” she says.
How you can support Heart 2 Heart Norfolk
We’re delighted to hear about how many 24/7 public access defibrillators Jayne has installed but more are still needed. If you would like to get behind her fundraising efforts every time you shop online at no extra cost, you can sign up as a supporter here.
If you are connected with a good cause that could benefit from some additional free funding, register a new cause with us here.