A charity organiser has thanked boxers who stepped up to the mark last month for a life-saving cause.
Dedicated fundraiser, Sarah Jones, who founded the charity Rammy Restart a Heart, is looking to install several more defibrillators in Bury after a huge fundraising success.
Sarah organised a charity boxing match at the Village Hotel last month with the goal of raising some money to bring more life-saving equipment to the borough, as part of new cause Restart The Heart
She said that with money raised from a charity ball and fun day, with Ramsbottom Rotary Club last year and money raised from the boxing match, they are looking to install around 15 defibrillators.
She said: “The price of defibrillators has increased significantly, we raised enough at the boxing match to be able to continue as our own charity, enable further fundraising events, training capabilities, installing the existing commitments and more defibrillators to a wider area.”
The match, which took place on April 1, sold out of tickets within one week of them going live and Sarah said that although there were a couple of injuries on the night, everyone came out smiling.
She said: “As far as I'm concerned, all the fighters are winners, regardless of what happened in the ring.
“Every single one of them deserves recognition for what they've done for us because, without them, we couldn’t have pulled this off.”
This was Sarah's first event with her new charity, Restart the Heart, which she set up to reach "reach further afield" after her previous campaign work in Ramsbottom.
She said: “In 2021, I started to raise money to buy more defibrillators in Ramsbottom having watched footballer Christian Eriksen suffer a cardiac arrest on the pitch (for Denmark in the Euros).
“My first fundraiser raised a significant amount of money and the second raised enough to buy and install 12 defibrillators.
“After these events and the generous support from the community, local businesses and the never-ending support from Ramsbottom Rotary Club, two more events raised enough money to purchase a further 16 defibrillators giving an amazing total of 28 defibrillators.”
Continuing the hard work, Sarah will also be running a defibrillator first aid training day in the near future with more information to be confirmed closer to the date.
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