VILLAGERS in East Hanney have stumped up almost £2,000 to buy a defibrillator called the Hanney Heart Start.

They hope that other villages in Oxfordshire will now follow suit, with the local GP saying it could be “the difference between life and death”.

Residents in the village near Wantage have been fundraising for two years through events such as pub quizzes and the Black Horse Pub beer festival in August.

The machine has been installed in the village because of its rural location, which means it can take up to 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

GP Katie Barber, who works in East Hanney, said: “It would be fantastic if it were rolled out across other villages and if people got passionate about it.

“Even if it were not used for 15 years, it would still be wortwhile if it were to save someone’s life.

“Having access to a defibrillator can be the difference between life and death.”

Dr Barber added: “If a resident were to see someone collapse and they called the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust, it would give them the code to the box with the defibrillator in.

“They could then try to help the person while being given guidance from the ambulance service.”

Villager Emma Ace, 33, said the community effort was “fantastic” and that her father-in-law, who has been to hospital with heart conditions twice in the last three years, might not have needed an ambulance if there had been a defibrillator.

She added: “It just takes the pressure off the ambulance service. “It gives the elderly population in the village comfort knowing they can get help before the ambulance service arrive.”

A defibrillator gives the heart a controlled electrical shock during cardiac arrest.

For every minute that passes without defibrillation, chances of survival decrease by about 10 per cent.

Last month a defibrillator was installed in Blewbury, near Didcot, in memory of father-of-three Graham Richards, who died aged 41 in August last year from a cardiac arrest.

Jenny Legg, from the British Heart Foundation, said: “We have made 10 grant awards to organisations in Oxford (city rather than county) which resulted in 11 defibrillators being supplied.”