A voluntary group has celebrated a huge milestone after installing the 50th community public access defibrillator in Rossendale. 

Dawn Taylor won the Rossendale Hospice-organised ‘Woman of the Year’ title in 2009, and later up the ‘Community Defibrillators for Rossendale’ scheme.  

In March 2011, the first CPAD was installed outside Mulderriggs in Bank Street, and more than a decade later, volunteers are celebrating the installation of the 50th.  

Dawn said: “I decided I wanted to do something as a result of winning and spoke to fellow community first responders Brian Pickup and Andrew Walmsley and we set up the community group.” 

The group raise money to fund defibrillators, and also runs training sessions for the public called ‘no fear sessions’. 

Community first responder, Brian Pickup, said: “No fear sessions have been held in schools, scouting organisations, for community groups and businesses and more than 3,000 people have been trained.  

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“The youngest person in Rossendale to be resuscitated is a 15-year-old student; it is not always an elderly person who can have a cardiac arrest and that is why the no fear sessions are so important.” 

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In 2019, when there were 28 CPADs in the valley, the volunteer team was awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest honour a community group can achieve. 

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