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New partnership to establish ‘Heart Safe’ Towns in South Coast NSW

Pearl Dy April 2, 2024

2 min read

A Mission Charity Partnership has been established between Superheroes Events Limited (SEL) and CellAED, the world’s first personal defibrillator.

With a shared mission to save lives from sudden cardiac arrest, the partnership aims to create ‘Heart Safe’ communities across the Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions through SEL’s Defibrillator Adoption Program.

A not-for-profit volunteer benevolent charity, SEL’s Defibrillation Adoption Program honours the memory of the late Doctor Barry Gray, a local community champion, who suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at his home in Shoalhaven Heads in October 2022.

Under the agreement, one CellAED will be donated to a community group or a family requiring benevolent assistance for every 10 CellAED devices purchased through SEL. Donations will be nominated by an SEL Community Partner.

“As part of our Superheroes Community Care’s charitable mission, we helped establish the Shoalhaven Heads Defibrillator Pilot Program,” said David Arakie, Superheroes Events Limited Volunteer Founding Director.

“This program identified fixed defibrillators are only part of what is needed in the community and broader assistance can be provided by personal AEDs, CellAED manufactured by Australian company Rapid Response Revival®.”

As 80% of sudden cardiac arrests occur in the home,1 CellAED is addressing the low survival rates of sudden cardiac arrest.

“Sudden cardiac arrest has a survival rate of less than one per cent,” said Donovan Casey, Rapid Response Revival Founder and CEO.

“This is because it kills so quickly and because most witnesses to a sudden cardiac arrest don’t have access to an AED to help save a life.”

Performing CPR and getting an AED on the patient during the first few critical moments of a sudden cardiac arrest gives an individual the best chance of survival.

“Despite being one of the world’s highest causes of premature death, awareness of sudden cardiac arrest remains too low in the public consciousness,” said Mark Hillebrand, CellAED Chief Marketing Officer.

“The more people in the Shoalhaven and Illawarra regions who understand the problem and are empowered to step up and be a part of the solution, the more impact we can collectively have on survival rates.”

Rapid Response Revival looks forward to creating ‘Heart Safe’ communities with SEL,” added Hillebrand.

Pearl Dy

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Pearl Dy is a community manager and journalist. She is passionate about business and development particularly involving not-for-profits, charity and social entrepreneurship.