Royton nursery community rally round and raise a whopping £1,562 for a defibrillator

Owner/Nursery Director Jane is pictured with Santa

A nursery based in Royton held a Christmas-themed fundraiser in a bid to purchase a defibrillator, and they absolutely smashed their expected target.

The defibrillator is now available for the local community to use, and is inside a heated cabinet, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Lauren Pickering, the Nursery Manager at the Shine A Light Day Nursery in Royton, takes up the story.

She told the Chronicle: "We were hoping to raise around £800, but the community and our families helped us to raise £1,562!

"The extra money raised will now go towards the maintenance of battery packs, and defibrillator pads that will keep the defibrillator operational.

"We had lots of local stallholders (wax melts/personalised clothes/baked goods/handmade christmas decorations,presents) set-up within the nursery, and families had to navigate their way around to reach our grotto (pictured below) with the children who received a present from Santa.

"We had a bottle-tombola that did extremely well and we had lots of donations towards raffle prizes, too. 

"The turnout was fantastic, a couple of the stall holders even requested we have fairs more frequently because they also did so well. 

"The council was also very kind and gave us parking permits so anyone helping us to raise funds didn't receive a parking ticket.

"We have a large car park, but there's always an overspill at our events."

The defibrillator is now in working order and should anyone close-by need access to it, the code is readily available with the ambulance service on 999.

Lauren added: "There's a big push around Royton to have as many defibrillators available as possible - living and working locally we felt it important to join in.

"We are extremely grateful for the generosity our families show during fundraising events, but they definitely surpassed all expectations during this one and we can't thank them enough."

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