Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Shock squad saving lives on Scottish Island

The Shock Squad: Iain Macleod, Deborah Ford, Mike Shailes, Kathleen MacLeod, Alison Musty, Iain MacLeod, Sue Hales, Mark Musty.
The Shock Squad: Iain Macleod, Deborah Ford, Mike Shailes, Kathleen MacLeod, Alison Musty, Iain MacLeod, Sue Hales, Mark Musty.

An island community has come together to create their own “shock squad” to deliver and operate the village defibrillator.

Like many other villages, Sheshader, in Point on Lewis, has its own defibrillator – but it also has a telephone hotline for summoning the lifesaving equipment and a neighbour who is fully trained to use it.

Money from Point and Sandwick Trust helped fund the acquisition of the defibrillator and the installation of an emergency telephone system.

Using the special number – 01851 808404 – anyone in Sheshader can make an alarm call and summon the defibrillator to be brought by one of the volunteers who knows how to use it.

Last year saw our community wind farm pass the huge milestone of £1million given away in charitable donations.One of…

Posted by Point and Sandwick Trust on Friday, 4 January 2019

Mike Shailes, chair of the Sheshader Amenities Association, explained that the number would alert the ‘shock squad’ – the 10 villagers who have been trained to use the defibrillator, kept on the outside wall of the village shed – that someone needed help.

The call automatically goes through to all 10 and the first to respond will take it to the casualty.

Mr Shailes explained: “For every minute that passes after a cardiac arrest without successful treatment, chances of survival decrease by 23%. Given that an ambulance is probably 10 minutes from Sheshader at best, if it is sitting in Stornoway – and potentially much further away, if it’s on a call somewhere like South Lochs – he said the Sheshader defibrillator and emergency number were a great protection.

“Within eight minutes, it would save the lives of 15 out of 100 people who collapse out of cardiac arrest.”

Sheshader Amenities Association received the defibrillator and training from Skye-based charity Lucky2BHere and around half the total costs of the equipment and installation, training, and the telephone system were met by the Point and Sandwick Trust donation.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


Mike said: “Point and Sandwick Trust gave us half the money. It was fantastically helpful. It takes the pressure off, when you are looking to fund something.”

The emergency telephone system went live in November. Mr Shailes had come across it when he was doing internet research on defibrillators for community use. As far as he is aware, it is not a system far more commonly used in England than Scotland.

Donald John MacSween, General Manager of Point and Sandwick Trust, said the community wind farm was delighted to be able to help such a worthwhile project.

He said: “We are very happy to have supported this project and emergency set up in Sheshader. Hopefully, they will not have call to use it – but at least it is there if they do.”