The Pentagon Group are proud to support the fantastic work of Horsham Community Responders by way of investment and installation of a public access Defibrillator site at their business premises in Blatchford Road, Horsham.

Who are Horsham Community Responders?

Horsham Community First Responders was set up in 2007 and has 15 trained responders attending serious incidents such as cardiac arrest, minor trauma and breathing difficulties to name but a few. Working with the ambulance crew the responders provide vital life-saving treatment to the Horsham community and surrounding areas. With an average response time of just 8 minutes to emergency calls the responders provide essential support to the busy ambulance service.

The potentially life-saving equipment has been installed on the side of the building at Pentagon Plastics which provides easy access for its emergency use when required. Pentagon is committed to supporting the local community where possible and saw this as an excellent opportunity to add to the lifesaving PAD sites.

PAD site officially activated

On Saturday 2nd June, Paul Edwards (Managing Director of the Pentagon Plastics Group) was joined by Hilary Humphrey of Horsham Community Responders and Jeremy Quin, MP for Horsham to officially activate the new PAD site which is the 21st to be installed in the area.‍

Paul Edwards says, “We have always supported local football teams and charities. When we heard about the great work that Horsham Responders were doing, we were very keen to find out more about them and how we could assist. Our industrial estate didn’t have any public Defibrillators so with support from Lloyds Bank, we were pleased to be able to fund this installation for the local community.”

The intuitive equipment is only accessible by a code obtained from calling 999 and will only operate on a patient where an irregular or absent heartbeat is detected. Voice instructions guide users through using this potentially lifesaving equipment. Your chance of survival drops 10% per minute if nothing is done after a cardiac arrest!

Along with Community First Responders (CFR’s) Public Access Defibrillators (PAD) sites help improve your chance of survival if you have a cardiac arrest.

A caring community

Volunteer Community First Responder and Local business owner Hilary Humphrey said, ‘We are grateful to Pentagon Plastics for donating the Defibrillator and the CO-OP store at Fitzalan Road for supporting us in raising the funds for this project which provides this potentially lifesaving device to the local business community in Blatchford Road’.

All the PAD sites that have been set up by Horsham First Responders have been supported by an offer of awareness training or British Heart Foundation Heart Start Courses.‍

Local MP Jeremy Quin says, “This PAD site in Blatchford Road – Horsham Community Responders’ 21st – is great news. It makes our community safer, providing defibrillator kit which saves lives. Many congratulations to Horsham Community Responders – a small but very effective local charity – and to Pentagon Plastics for providing support.”

In February 2016 a public access defibrillator was used within Horsham to save the life of football commentator Peter Brackley (open source information in the public domain).

In out of Hospital Cardiac Arrests CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) ‘buys time’ until the arrival of a defibrillator which can shock the heart back into the correct rhythm.

The funds for the cabinet that Horsham Community Responders has donated to this PAD site (£650.00) has been collected at the Co-Op store at Fitzalan Road Roffey and reinvested back into the local community.

Horsham has a very strong sense of community which is evident to anyone that either lives here, works here or visits the area. The team at Pentagon are proud to be one of the larger SME employers in the area and are delighted to be home to this new Defibrillator site!

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