HOW far do you live from a defibrillator? And how quickly could you get to the nearest one if someone you knew had a heart attack? 

After having a cardiac arrest, when your heart stops pumping blood around the body, you have four minutes to get to a defibrillator before your brain cells start to starve of oxygen. 

But many parts of West Berkshire don’t have publicly available defibrillators nearby. This means where you are in the district could decide whether or not you survive a cardiac arrest. 

So Councillor Adrian Abbs (Lib Dem, Newbury Wash Common) is getting five defibrillators installed in Greenham, and is bidding for funding to get five more installed in Wash Common. 

The five in Greenham were funded by the Greenham parish council. The first one will be installed shortly at the control tower. 

For the five in Wash Common, Cllr Abbs has made a member’s bid to West Berkshire Council for £5,000, and Greenham Trust has said it will match fund the money from the council. 

Cllr Abbs said: “It’s something that will save lives. It’s the number-one killer and we can do something about it.” 

Each defibrillator costs in total £2,000 to buy and install. They are simple to use, and a shock from one gets your heart pumping again in a good rhythm. 

In the meantime, CPR can help get oxygen into your body. The Resuscitation Council has a free app, iResus, with all the guidelines on what to do. 

Each year in the UK, 100,000 people die of sudden cardiac arrests. This is more than lung cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined.