THE death of a Child Okeford man in 2010 has sparked a community fundraising effort in the village.

In just two weeks over Christmas, kind-hearted locals donated £1012.71 at pub the Baker Arms to buy a portable defibrillator.

Landlady Caroline Dennett said she wanted to thank everyone who had contributed.

“Back in 2010, we had a gentleman pool player called John who dropped dead in the pub after a game,” she said.

“Several of our customers tried to revive him, but sadly, there was nothing they could do.

“Since then, we’d spoken about a portable defibrillator, but nothing happened.

“Then a friend of ours also went through something similar, but survived, and that sparked it off.

We said, ‘Let’s do something about it’, and we held a race night and a quiz night here.

“We also put a bottle on the bar for people’s change, and in no time we’d got enough to buy a portable defibrillator.

“It was amazing.”

The defibrillator will be installed in the village, with locals yet to decide where it should go.

Mrs Dennett said: “The defibrillator will go outside on a wall, rather than going inside the pub.

“It means that anyone who needs it will always be able to use it if for some reason we were closed.

It’ll be put in a special box with a code on it to make sure it’s safe, and if someone calls 999, they’ll be given the code.”