A REMOTE spot where a defibrillator will be installed in memory of a teenager has been vandalised.

The defibrillator will be placed in a car park near where Oliver McIvor, 17, died from heart failure while out on a run in Back Lane, Sabden.

Work had started to get the spot ready for the defibrillator to be installed when his mother Tracey Barnett went there on Friday.

But when she returned on Sunday evening, she found the cemented area defaced with obscenities and a swastika.

Ms Barnett described the perpetrators as ‘vile’ and said she was worried the defibrillator will be targeted when it is installed.

She said: “On Friday, all the foundations for the defibrillator were laid when the cement guys came up.

“I left the site that day but when I returned on Sunday evening obscenities and names had been daubed on it and tape surrounding the cement had been removed.

“The cement must have been still drying and they’ve used their fingers or a stick to write on it.

“It’s vile what they’ve done.”

In March, Oliver’s friends and family held a fundraiser to pay for the defibrillator to be installed, raising £5,000.

Ms Barnett said the defibrillator costs almost £6,000 and is only the third of its kind in the country.

Ms Barnett, who has reported the matter to the police, added: “This is because it needs to be solar powered because the area where Oliver died is out in the country so there is no electricity.

“I would ask people to stay well away from it, as I do worry what could happen when the defibrillator is installed.

“A lot of hard work and blood sweat and tears has gone into this from the family and the community.

Oliver, of Padiham Road, Sabden, had left home to go out running on January 7 last year but was found dead in Back Lane, Sabden, at around 4pm that day by passers-by.

The youngster had been set to join the Duke of Lancaster regiment, following in his father, Vincent McIvor, and grandfather’s footsteps.

A medical examination, including a heart check, had been carried out in the months before he was due to join the army, which found no underlying illnesses.