Handcross
At the end of the meeting the conversation turned to the topic of defibrillators and how many there were in the village, something that had been raised on social media recently. I understand there are currently two in the village: one at the surgery and the other at the Hardware Shop, the latter having been donated to the village by a heart charity (whose name escapes me at the time of writing!), and all we needed to do was find somewhere to put it and cover the costs of installation ourselves. It seems that there is interest in possibly getting another one to go at the other end of the village, possibly at the Royal Oak if it can be arranged. The conversation then moved to how to pay and Ian mentioned that he and his wife, Jane, had raised funds through their Big Breakfasts over the past couple of years which they still had thanks to the donation mentioned above. They would be happy to use this to fund another one and the meeting agreed to the suggestion that Help at Hand donate some of their funds towards this, which was very generous. Hopefully we will soon be in the lucky position to have two defibrillators available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, should we ever have the need to use them. With regard to training in the use of them, they are very easy to use in that full, clear and precise instructions come with them but I do know that training can be provided and should there be an interest in this, please let me know and I will pass on your details to someone (again, not sure at the time of writing!) who can help.
Upcoming meetings: There are another couple of Annual General Meetings coming up early next month, the first will be on 1 May and that is for the Management Committee of the Parish Hall. You might want to make a note of this one as I know one of the topics up for discussion is the refurbishment of the Hall which, I am sure you will agree if you are a user of the Hall, is long overdue! The one after that is the meeting of the Community Bus Committee which is being held on 8 May. The former meeting will be from 7.30pm and the latter will be held in the afternoon, starting I understand at 3.30pm. I will give more information on both meetings a little nearer the time but like Help at Hand, both are made up of volunteers and I know would welcome new members so if you would like to get more involved in the village and have time on your hands, do go along if you can, you might be pleasantly surprised at the welcome you will receive.