Life-saving defibrillator to be installed after hard work of pub landlady

Nikki Thomas took over as landlady of the Ship Inn, located on Bullring in the town centre, nearly a year ago and she was determined to turn the pub around and give back to the community.

After she collected more than 300 Easter Eggs to give to the Horncastle Community Food Larder at Easter, she has also been campaigning and fundraising to have a defibrillator installed in the pub to save a life if needed.

After months of hard work, the defibrillator was finally installed on Monday (August 15), and Nikki said that all of her staff will be trained on how to use it.

"We don’t have enough defibrillators in the community I don’t think,” Nikki said.

“If someone’s having a heart attack some of the others are too far away, and we’re right in middle of everywhere and the defib is in a nice little case so it’s so easy to carry to wherever it’s needed.”

Nikki has also been working hard to turn the pub into a family-friendly pub, offering food this month and also having Sky Sports installed for sports fans.

"This pub has turned around so much and more and more families are coming in,” she said.

"I am in the middle of prettying up the beer garden too, to make it a more enjoyable experience coming here.

“At the moment I'm concentrating on my outside sky sports watching area, revamping the beer garden and hopefully starting food at the end of the month as well as getting cask in the next few weeks.”

Starting next month, Nikki will be starting to collect chocolate selection boxes to donate to Horncastle Community Food Larder’s Christmas appeal, and if anyone would like to donate some chocolate treats for the appeal, these can be dropped in at the pub, located on Bullring in the town centre.

Zoe Dean, Community Partnership Manager said: “Sudden Cardiac Arrest can strike at any time. When it does, using a defibrillator has proven to be the most effective response, by some distance.

"Defibrillation within three minutes of SCA increases the chances of survival to over 70 percent. Literally every second counts.

A Community Publicly Accessible Defibrillator (CPAD) is a simple piece of equipment, that delivers a jolt of electricity to the heart. Resetting its rhythm and returning the heart rate to normal. They’re easy to use and require little-to-no training, but they can be the difference between life and death. The potential benefits of a CPAD are clear. Especially in rural areas where emergency response times are longer than in urban centres. Purchasing a defibrillator from LIVES makes your community safer, as well as supporting LIVES volunteers in your area to continue the critical, lifesaving work that people have come to expect. And, of course, full training can be provided to support proper and effective use.”