Eight schools in and around Chester have bought defibrillators from the NHS in the past two years.

Defibrillators give an electric shock to somebody having a potentially fatal cardiac arrest, which is when their heart fails to pump blood around the body.

The kit gives an electric shock to the heart designed to force it into beating normally once more.

Schools are able to buy defibrillators from the NHS Supply Chain, which orders them in batches on their behalf.

The Chronicle asked the NHS how many schools had bought defibrillators in the past two years.

Their reply was that eight schools in the Cheshire West and Chester district had bought one defibrillator each.

They are Antrobus St Mark’s, Charles Darwin Community Primary in Northwich, Christleton Primary, Cloughwood, Hartford Manor, Moulton, Neston High and The Catholic School in Handbridge.

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Another four schools in Cheshire East have bought five of the kits.

They are among hundreds of schools, colleges and other educational establishments around the country that have bought at least one defibrillator in the past two years.

In the Chester area, award-winning fundraiser Lee Challinor has been carrying out his own campaign to make sure as many schools in the area as possible have their own defibrillators.

Lee, who founded Blacon Defibrillator Fund, was awarded cardiac charity SADS UK’s National Community Defibrillator Award by a senior manager from North West Ambulance Service.

The Department of Education encourages schools to order them and keep them for first aid.

Modern defibrillators are designed so that people can use them in an emergency without any training, with audio and visual prompts to guide you through the process.

Every second counts if someone is in cardiac arrest - just a few minutes without blood pumping around the body is enough to lead to death or irreversible brain damage.

The devices can’t cure all heart problems - it works by analysing the patient’s condition and delivering an electric shock to force the heart back into a regular rhythm.

The NHS Supply Chain bought the Philips FRx and Mediana HeartOn A15 models.