ANSWERING THE CALL TO HELP LOCAL COMMUNITIES
This year we’ve helped to breathe new life into hundreds of rural phone boxes as part of a nationwide scheme to provide local communities with access to vital emergency medical equipment.
As part of the ‘Minutes Matter’ scheme launched by BT and the Community HeartBeat Trust, life-saving defibrillators have been installed in local phone boxes which were first refurbished with free paint donated by members of the British Coatings Federation (BCF). To date we have supplied undercoat and red paint via our nationwide network of Crown Decorating Centres to renovate 130 phone boxes, which have each been equipped with a defibrillator to provide urgent treatment following a cardiac arrest. This equates to almost a quarter of all paint donations made under the Minutes Matter scheme so far.
As the chances of survival reduce every minute following a cardiac arrest, the UK Resuscitation Council recommends that access to a defibrillator should be available when emergency medical care is more than five minutes away. The pioneering scheme was launched to renovate phone boxes in rural areas across the country, with BCF members such as Crown Paints providing a new lick of paint and BT maintaining the electricity supply so that the emergency equipment is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We’re delighted to have been able to contribute to the vital scheme and it’s great that so many rural communities now have access to these much-needed medical resources. Phone boxes are found across the country and the iconic red paintwork is instantly recognisable. We’re pleased that they have been repurposed for such an important cause and that our products have played a role in this.
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