A SPORTS organisation is branching out in a bid to improve the health and welfare of its village.

Sedgefield Village Games formed in 2012 to organise sporting events in Sedgefield, inspired by the London 2012 Olympics.

Its community games were so successful the group wanted to create a legacy and went on to set up a bursary scheme to support young sports people.

Now it is giving thought to the overall welfare of the village and its first project has been to provide a defibrillator that will be on hand in a medical emergency.

The idea stemmed from an incident with Barry Watson who suffered a major coronary while cycling in March 2013.

Fortunately a passer-by trained in CPR was able to give him immediate first aid until an ambulance arrived. He went on to make a good recovery and remains a keen cyclist.

Sedgefield Village Games pulled together £1,700 from its own funds and from Sedgefield Rotary, Sedgefield Escape, Right Lines Communications, Sedgefield Squash Club, Sedgefield Harriers and Sedgefield Surgery to buy the defibrillator.

The machine has been installed in the centre of the town for use in the event that someone goes into cardiac arrest.

When someone rings 999 the call handler can give a security code to the caller to access the kit which comes with audio instructions about how to use it until professional help arrives.

Mr Watson said: “When I collapsed, I was extremely lucky that someone who knew how to perform CPR was close at hand, particularly as there was no defibrillator nearby.

“It’s great that Sedgefield now has this device in such a prominent and central location.”

Chris Lines, of Sedgefield Village Games committee, said: “The first few minutes are critical and immediate access to a defibrillator can be the difference between life and death.

“At this stage, the key priority is to make sure as many people as possible know about its presence, in case it’s needed.

“However, what Sedgefield Village Games also wants to do, in partnership with the North East Ambulance Service and Sedgefield Surgery, is use its installation as a platform for improving general first aid skills in Sedgefield and train some people so that they already know how to use the defibrillator, in the event that they need to.”