Leicestershire tennis club are on the ball to create a heart-safe community for all with help from JHMT

Leicestershire tennis club are on the ball to create a heart-safe community for all with help from JHMT

A COMMUNITY tennis club has taken step to ensure their defibrillator is accessible to the community with the support of a local heart charity.

The external cabinet which will keep the defibrillator safe has been donated by the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT), which works with sports clubs and community groups to raise awareness of sudden heart deaths, particularly in young people.

Around 40 + club members from both tennis and bowls clubs will take part in the Trust's Joe's Mini HeartStart for Sports Clubs CPR & AED training programme which aims to ensure sports club members, including players, officials and volunteers, know how to use a defibrillator and can perform CPR in an emergency.

Eamonn Canavan, Treasurer - Enderby Lawn Tennis Club said: " We have had a defibrillator for some time for our club members. The provision of the cabinet by the Trust has now made it possible to ensure the club's defibrillator is available to the wider community 24/7, not just members who have access to the clubhouse. JHMT's help with the technical details of the cabinet assisted with our discussions with the Enderby Parish Council to get permission to site the cabinet on their brick storehouse. Also having the opportunity to get training from the Trust will mean our members will have more confidence if they ever are ever called upon to use the defibrillator."

"While we hope we will never have to use it, it shows our commitment to heart safe sports and will also benefit the wider community. Nothing can be more important than saving a life" – added Eamonn

Tennis is great fun for families and friends to play and is known to benefit physical and mental health. Enderby Lawn Tennis Club welcomes players of all ages and abilities. The club have 180 members from 5 to almost 90 and was presented with the Tennis Club of the Year Award by the former British No. 1 Greg Rusedski at the Tennis Leicestershire Awards ceremony in February. There are 110 adult and 70 junior members. There's over 700 individual members of the public who booked their courts in 2022. You do not have to be a member to book a court and can play every day from 8am to 10pm on the three floodlit savannah courts, tennis rackets and balls are available to borrow if you do not have any. The club was established in 1937 to celebrate the coronation of King George VI on land donated in memory of King George V. In 2021, the club installed an electronic gate and an online booking system that the public can use and there has been a massive increase in the use of the courts by the general public which is great to see - www.EnderbyLawnTennisClub.co.uk.

Dr Mike Ferguson from the JHMT said: "A sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) can happen to anyone, anywhere and is not confined to the older generation or seemingly infirm. In the UK a witnessed cardiac arrest happens every 20 minutes every day and only one in ten will survive. Roughly speaking there are 12 deaths per week in people under the age of 35 who have shown no signs of being unwell. When a cardiac arrest happens the heart stops pumping blood around the body - this is not a heart attack (in a heart attack the heart will still pump some blood around). In SCA the heart stops completely and minutes count: the probability of death increase by 10% every minute if nothing gets done. That means that death is almost inevitable after 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, in the UK the survival from a SCA currently stands at 10%. Performing CPR buys invaluable time and means that the chance of getting and using an AED becomes possible. Learning CPR and how to use an AED is not difficult and will save lives. It is hoped that Enderby Tennis Club will never have to use these skills, but by learning CPR and having a defibrillator means the chance of someone surviving a SCA will rise from 10% to over 50%."

The JHMT is a local charity which was set up in memory of Leicester teenager Joe Humphries, who in October 2012 collapsed and died while out jogging near his family home in Rothley. Joe was a victim of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) – a group of lethal heart diseases which can cause sudden cardiac death in young people.

As well as providing free CPR and defibrillator training, the JHMT works hard to raise awareness of sudden heart deaths ( SADS), helps to provide community defibrillators and runs Inspire, a local grants scheme for inspirational young people in the city and county.

To find out more about the work of the Trust, apply for training and support, or to help out with the charity's work, visit the website at www.jhmt.org.uk

You can also follow the Trust on Facebook at facebook.com/JHMTorguk and Twitter @JHMTorguk .

(Source & Image: Joe Humphries Memorial Trust)