Dumfries pupils' campaign to have defibrillators in all Scottish schools heads to Holyrood

Committee members will discuss the well-supported petition from Troqueer Primary on Wednesday

A campaign by Dumfries pupils to have defibrillators available in all Scottish schools will be considered at Holyrood tomorrow.

Pupils at Troqueer Primary School successfully lodged a well-supported petition calling for Automated External Defibrillators in both primary and secondary schools.

And it is now up to members of the Scottish Parliament’s Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee to discuss it.

Such a move would bring them into line with schools south of the border who have all been given defibrillators via the UK Government.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Galloway and West Dumfries MSP Finlay Carson, who met the pupils and advised them on lodging their petition and has already submitted a formal submission backing the Troqueer School bid, said: “I am absolutely delighted to support the petition and I sincerely hope it gets a good reaction.

“Unfortunately I will not be able to attend in person as I am convening the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee at the same time but I have lodged a formal submission making my strong views known.

“It is a wonderful achievement from the pupils to get to this stage alone and I really hope that it gets the support this petition richly deserves.

“It is just unfortunate that I cannot attend the committee meeting but I have offered to meet any of the pupils afterwards and show them
around.

“As part of their campaign, the pupils wrote to all of the MSPs urging them to support their campaign and we made sure they were all hand delivered to all of their offices.”

In his submission, the Conservative and Unionist MSP praised the “tireless” efforts of the pupils in their quest to ensure every school in Scotland has access to an AED.

He wrote: “While there is a local defibrillator, the youngsters discovered it was too far away to have a positive impact on anybody who might suffer a cardiac arrest at the school.

“As they correctly pointed out, during busy periods they can have up to 500 people on site.

“Can I highlight and commend their actions in raising money to buy an AED, having learned about enterprise, the circulatory system, and, crucially, how important these devices are.”

The children have also been given support from Dumfries’ Rodger Hill who is raising awareness and fundraising for the charity CRY (cardiac risk in the young) and attended the school to tell them about his campaign, in memory of his son David, to have more screening available to young people.

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