‘It’s really satisfying’: member’s defibrillator campaign helps save lives

12 June 2026

A Durham Police Federation member whose personal experience inspired a defibrillator campaign says it's 'fantastic’ the equipment helped save a man's life.

Sergeant Terry Archbold was instrumental in securing publicly accessible defibrillators at police stations across the Force area.

The project with the Red Sky Foundation, a charity dedicated to supporting people with heart conditions, evolved to include defibrillators being added to response vehicles.

Terry said the initiative grew after his daughter Beatrix, fell ill with heart failure at 15 months old.

 

Sergeant Terry Archbold with his daughter Beatrix

 

She spent 15 months at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital while awaiting a transplant. She underwent a successful heart transplant in June 2023 and is now thriving.

But the experience also highlighted an opportunity to improve access to life-saving equipment.

Terry said: "I became aware of the Red Sky Foundation charity while my daughter was in hospital.

“They were doing a lot of work in communities around defibrillators, and I realised we had very limited access to community defibrillators across our estate.

Partnership

"I looked at which buildings we could put them on and that partnership between Durham Police and Red Sky developed into having defibrillators installed on the front of our police stations."

Since 2022, around 16 police stations have been fitted with publicly accessible defibrillators, providing vital life-saving equipment.

The success of that project led to discussions about an even more ambitious target of equipping response vehicles with defibrillators.

Terry said: "It has snowballed from there.

"We had conversations about having defibrillators in police vehicles and how we use them operationally.

Emergency

"There were occasions where I would collect a community defibrillator from the front of a police station and blue-light it to a scene where it was potentially required. “Sometimes that could be miles away. It highlighted the fact we would benefit from having them on our vehicles."

The importance of that decision was demonstrated on 12 May when officers responded to a medical emergency on Consett Front Street.

PC Charles Holliday was flagged down by a member of the public after a man was found unresponsive with a facial injury.

PC Bethany Reeves and PC Kline Hillary responded from Consett Police Station and, within moments of arriving, confirmed the man had no pulse and was not breathing. CPR began within 60 seconds of officers reaching the scene.

They were joined by an off-duty paramedic, an off-duty Northumbria Police officer and members of the public, all working together to save the man's life with a defibrillator used before ambulance crews arrived and took over the patient's care.

The man was stabilised at the scene, regained independent breathing, and was taken to hospital by the North East Ambulance Service.

Stabilised

Terry said the incident underlined why the campaign mattered.

"It's really satisfying," he said. "It justifies and highlights that it's an important piece of kit.

"The fact it has come on the back of charitable donations is fantastic. People in the community have donated money to Red Sky Foundation and the charity has been able to give something back that helps save lives.

"The reality is we're often there before the ambulance service. If CPR is ongoing, police officers are usually dispatched at the same time because of our first aid training and because people need help quickly. It just makes perfect sense that the kit is available."

Red Sky Foundation has been working closely with Our Jay Foundation to fight for defibrillators to become mandatory in every police response car in the UK.

Our Jay Foundation was founded by Naomi Rees-Issitt after her son, Jamie, died from a cardiac arrest in 2022. 

READ MORE: Federation-backed welfare van ready to support members.