Friday 12th August 2016 – 12.15pm – Claire Brown.
A world class touring classical ballet company in Birmingham is dancing for joy after receiving not one but two defibrillators thanks to West Midlands Ambulance Service.
The Trust recently donated two automated external defibrillators to Birmingham Royal Ballet to help restart the heart of someone in cardiac arrest.
Andy Jeynes, the Trust’s Community Response Manager, said: “Birmingham Royal Ballet is a huge organisation and, as well as its main building in Thorp Street, it has a separate storage facility and when the company is on tour there are naturally a lot of people involved. Last year I helped the company purchase its first defibrillator following some life-saving training we delivered to staff. Thanks to Birmingham International Airport, who recently returned two defibrillators to the ambulance service, I decided to donate the re-commissioned devices to Birmingham Royal Ballet, so that it now have a device at each of its locations as well an additional device to take on tour.
“As well as providing peace of mind to the ballet dancers and staff, the devices are on hand to help audience members in an emergency. We’re very pleased to be supporting such a prestigious company.”
Sam Howe, Human Resources Assistant from Birmingham Royal Ballet, said: “We’ve worked in partnership with West Midlands Ambulance Service for many years to promote first-aid training and awareness in the workplace. Last year, they provided advanced first aid training to our staff where it was identified that the company would benefit from additional defibrillator units for the safety of its staff and dancers. The training we received was fantastic. The ongoing support we’ve had from the ambulance service has been second to none and we’re very grateful to them for our two new defibrillators.
“The safety of our technical and administrative staff alongside our dancers is paramount, and now with these extra units we are increasing the safety for everyone in our offices and on tour; for staff and visitors, too.”
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Pictured: Sam Howe and Andy Jeynes