WIREDGOV

A woman who launched a charity providing defibrillators to Welsh schools after being diagnosed with a heart defect will use money from the latest round of National Lottery funding to help protect more young people.

A total of 36 community-based projects across Wales share the £142,448 awarded under the latest round of the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All small grants programme.

A full list of projects is available here. 
 
Cariad, Our Schools Need Defibrillators receives £4,000 to buy five defibrillators for schools in Swansea and Carmarthenshire.

After being disagnosed serious heart defect last year, Sherilyn Hamilton-Shaw, 39, started the charity with her husband Anthony, 38. And in just over 12 months they have already supplied 21 defibrillators to local schools.

When someone goes into cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces their chances of survival by 10 per cent. A defibrillator is a machine that delivers an electric shock to the heart.

“After suffering from palpitations, I was told that I could be suffering from arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) which can cause sudden death,” said Sherilyn from Llanelli. “It was a very scary time but after many tests I was told that my condition was less serious – it’s now a congenital defect that has caused a small bulge on my right ventricle. However, I still need yearly scans to check it doesn’t get any worse.

“My cardiologist told me to research the condition, and, when I did, I was shocked to read how many children were dying in schools from undiagnosed heart conditions. That’s when we decided to do something about it. First we held a fundraising singing event and this just led to more and more events.”

So far, the group has raised £25,000 and hope their work will encourage all Welsh schools to have defibrillators.

“Other groups like children’s rugby clubs are also catching on and want defibrillators too,” said the mother-of-three. “The biggest thing is making people aware of how important they are. We hope they never have to be used but at least they will be there to save lives if needed and we are so grateful that this grant from the Big Lottery Fund will help buy some more.”

Other Welsh groups receiving funding include Denbigh Youth Project which gets £5,000 to encourage more young people to participate in the group’s activities by offering street soccer sessions while Woody’s Workers in Torfaen will use £4,992 to provide equipment, including slide, table tennis table and balls, for a new log building which has facilities for children, young people and the wider community.

Out Thru the Door Group in Wrexham receives £5,000 to establish a social and educational club for young adults with learning disabilities living in rural areas and Trimsaran Family Centre in Carmarthenshire will spend £5,000 to deliver a healthy eating and exercise programme for local families.

Children and vulnerable people will get help to stay safe thanks to a £4,995 grant to Dangerpoint Ltd in Flintshire. It will use the money to develop an interactive 3D version of their K-OS alien character which will use interactive speech technology to raise awareness.

Other grants include £2,400 to Carers of Alcohol and Substance Misuse (CASM) in Carmarthenshire to create a new website and run a social media campaign to raise awareness of their services and £4,750 for Conwy-based Action for Arts Trust Limited who will use the money to deliver training sessions for volunteers in aimed at improving life skills and employability of young people.

Gareth Williams, Awards for All Programme Manager for the Big Lottery Fund in Wales, said: “Awards for All is having a positive impact throughout Wales. Money is helping to establish groups, societies and clubs, promoting learning, increasing volunteering opportunities and helping to build stronger communities.”

Available in English and Welsh, application forms are available to download from www.awardsforall.org.uk or by phone on 0845 4 10 20 30.

Further Information

Ben Payne - Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 02920 678 224
Out of Hours Contact: 07980 914 898
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030                          
Textphone:  0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/biglotterywales
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/biglotteryfundwales 

Notes to editors

• In Wales, the Big Lottery Fund is rolling out close to £100,000 a day in National Lottery good cause money, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across Wales most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £29 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.