01 Oct 2023
After suffering a cardiac arrest on 17 January 2020 while performing a bushfire relief show, the original Yellow Wiggle Greg Page is still with us today due to the life-saving Automated External Defibrillator (“AED”) available at the venue.
During his recovery, Greg was astounded to learn that 90% of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside of hospital do not survive. In knowing this statistic, Greg Page made it his mission to educate all Australians on how to perform CPR and the importance of AEDs being more available in public places and their key role to surviving cardiac arrest. This is how Heart of the Nation began under Greg’s direction with one key message “Call, push, shock”.
Call 000, Push on chest to perform CPR and Shock using the AED.
In August 2022, Revesby Workers’ Club funded $13,000 through the ClubGRANTS scheme to Heart of the Nation with a view to installing life saving AEDs in and around the local community and housed in locations accessible to the public. Revesby Workers’ Club reached out to local schools and businesses to determine who would be interested in housing an AED on their school gate and/or shop front. We are proud to announce that the first Heart of the Nation AEDs were installed within our local community in July 2023. Following the success of this initiative, the Club has funded a further $20,000 this year and in partnership with Heart of the Nation we are looking forward to installing a further 4-5 AEDs in our local Community.
Together with Greg Page and Heart of the Nation, Revesby Workers’ Club would like to thank Tower Street Public School, Revesby South Public School, East Hills Boys Technology High School and McQ Smash Repairs for taking the lead in this initiative and being the first to house an AED on site. We are looking forward to further installations over the next 12 months to ensure our Community has access to these life saving devices.
If you are a local resident, school, business or community organisation and you are interested in finding out more about Heart of the Nation or being considered for an AED, please contact Tenielle Symington at Revesby Workers Club via email at tenielles@rwc.org.au.