Lottery helps keep Heartwize beating

Heartwize is a volunteer-led organisation established in 2014 to tackle the important public health problem of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Every year in the UK, over 60,000 people suffer a cardiac

Over half of the cardiac arrests that occur out of hospital are witnessed, with 80% occurring in the home rather than in a public place. A prompt and effective bystander response can be the difference between life and death yet most people lack the knowledge or confidence to intervene.

With bystander responses, survival could be increased two- to three-fold, saving thousands of lives each year. There is an urgent need to increase public knowledge and resuscitation skills to improve outcomes.

What does Heartwize do?

The aim of Heartwize is to improve outcomes after cardiac arrest by raising community awareness and providing training in basic resuscitation skills. The primary focus of Heartwize is on providing training in schools and the programme was initially established with two key objectives:

• To ensure that every school leaver in Leicestershire has received training in how to recognise and respond to a cardiac arrest;

• To provide every secondary school in the county with an AED and training in its use.

• So far over 20000 school leavers have been trained

The provision of an AED in a school serves both as a vital first-aid resource in case of emergency but also as an educational tool, ensuring that the pupils become used to seeing the AED on a daily basis and as aware of its importance and use as they would be with that of a fire extinguisher.

Heartwize is also committed to providing training in the wider community including sports clubs, community organisations and religious groups. Heartwize has developed strong links with Rotary. Training has been provided to the members of many of the Rotary Clubs throughout the county and a number of Rotarians have become Heartwize volunteer trainers. Rotary also assists with fundraising and Bradgate Rotary Club has supported the establishment of the Heartwize lottery.

Heartwize is also establishing links with local businesses, whereby Heartwize provides train-the-trainer sessions to upskill the company’s first-aiders to cascade Heartwize training to the entire workforce. The first-aiders are encouraged to join the school volunteer panel for a local school, establishing an ongoing and supportive link between the business and the school.

Rotary also assists with fundraising and Bradgate Rotary Club has supported the establishment of the Heartwize lottery the purpose of which is to provide this relatively small charity,  which punches far above its weight, with an income stream to continue and expand its work.

This is where you come in. To raise £50000 a year around 2300 tickets need to be sold week – each entry costs just £1. For every £1 you play each week, you'll receive a unique 6-digit lottery number. Every Friday, a winning number is drawn at random using a Gambling Commission approved Random Number Generator.  To win, the digits in your own number must match the drawn number, and be in the same position.

WHAT CAN YOU WIN

Win up to £25,000 every week plus other great prizes!

• 3 digit match = 5 entries into the next draw

• 4 digit match = £25

• 5 digit match = £1,000

• 6 digit match = £25,000

To take part in the lottery, please visit Heartwize | Causes | Unity Lottery
And to find YOUR nearest defibrillator machine, follow this link The National Defibrillator Database |