Concerned town residents have taken their future health into their own hands and raised an incredible amount of money to provide Evesham with lifesaving equipment. 

More than £2,000 has been raised by Evesham Defibrillators to help maintain the 27 machines the group have installed since 2023. 

It was a whole community effort say the group which has thanked everyone who has been involved. 

It costs around £500 to maintain each machine for the next five years and the money raised will go towards that £15,000 bill.

The group stepped in in 2023 following the closure of both Stratford and Evesham ambulance stations in 2021.

It means that ambulances must now be dispatched from Warwick, Worcester or Gloucester to patients in Evesham.

West Midlands Ambulance Service has admitted that response times in rural areas are "much longer than anyone would want", blaming hospital admission delays.

Kerry Wood, founder of Evesham Defibrillators, said: "We raised £2,364 from our event on Saturday (November 2) which was way more than we thought. 

"We had tombola, raffles, a cake sale, hook a took, a teddy tombola, and much more. 

"We had people coming in and out all day and everyone enjoyed it. 

"It was outstanding and we were left dumbfounded. 

"It was really good because it highlighted Evesham's incredible generosity and I'd like to thank everyone who donated."

Since forming, the group has raised well over £30,000 and has no plans to stop adding more defibrillators to Evesham's streets. 

Mrs Wood continued: "In a cardiac arrest every minute counts. 

"It's recommended that everyone should have access to them within 500m so we want them on every street so everyone can access them. 

"It's why we do what we do."

Someone suffering from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest only has a 7% chance of survival, however if they receive early CPR it rises to 80%.

Evesham Defibrillators also won the Community Organisation of the Year accolade at the Love Evesham Awards on November 2.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesperson admitted that hospital handover delays did have an effect in rural areas.

They said: "There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly. 

"If ambulances are delayed handing their patient over, they are simply unable to respond to the next call, which will impact on the care of the patient in the community.

“Hospital handover delays particularly impact rural areas as the ambulances that should be circulating in those areas are stuck at hospital.  

"In practical terms it means that ambulances will often have to travel much further to get to incidents in rural areas which inevitably means response times will be much longer than anyone would want.

"Sadly, we see some patients wait much longer for a response than we would want as a result of hospital handover delays for which we apologise.

“We will continue to work with our partners to find ways of reducing the delays further so that our crews can respond more quickly and save more lives.”