STAFF at a Saltcoats butchers recently gave back to the community by installing a defibrillator.

And it wouldn’t have been possible without Saltcoats Community Council.

Carol Bicket from Bicket’s the Butchers started the fundraising through “Butchers at the Heart of the Community” and she went along with her two kids to a meeting which impressed everyone in attendance.

Following on from this Cllr Ronnie McNicol spoke to Andrew Hale, Equality and Health Policy Officer from NAC who agreed that two defibs could be donated to both Bicket’s shops - one for outside their Kilwinning shop and one for outside Saltcoats shop. This enabled the defibs to be put up much quicker than anticipated and many thanks goes to Andrew Hale and NAC for donating these from Alex Bicket Ltd and from the Saltcoats and Kilwinning Town communities.

Money was raised through raffle ticket sales, donations and a sponsored cycle round Millport. Fundraising money was used for the security boxes, replacement batteries, and put towards the running costs of the defibs. PH Electrical (Saltcoats) and Tam Miller electrician (Kilwinning) must also be thanked for kindly donating their time.

There is some leftover money which is currently being put into new signage pointing the public to the direction of the defibrillators.