| RURAL PUB PLACES DEFIBRILLATOR IN HEART OF COMMUNITY
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The Walnut Tree pub, in East Farleigh, has become a defibrillator station for the rural area south east of Maidstone, providing vital on-the-spot equipment for use by paramedics and community first responders.
Customers at the Shepherd Neame pub, run by Don and Glynis Cross, raised £1,100 to buy the life-saving equipment through bar collections and quiz nights.
Glynis, who is already a St John's Ambulance first-aider, is having special training in using the defibrillator and has applied to become a community first responder, covering a two-mile radius around the village.
She said: "I would like to help people in the area, as well as feeling I could deal with emergencies in and around the pub. If anything happened, I could be there two minutes before an ambulance and that can make all the difference."
Don and Glynis have been at the Walnut Tree, in Forge Lane, for eight years and, in that time, have raised many thousands of pounds for charity and are past winners of the Shepherd Neame Community Pub of the Year award.
