The Springfield Road, Coleraine and Derry-Londonderry based branches have all been equipped with defibrillators which local communities can use during a medical emergency.

In Northern Ireland, in a typical year, over 1,400 people suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Without a defibrillator, the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest decrease by 70%.

Ciaran McConnell, JP Corry Managing Director said: “Placing defibrillators within our branches promotes better responses to a cardiac situation, and increases the chances of survival. We have numerous staff, customers and suppliers coming and going within our branches daily, so having a defibrillator onsite to assist in someone experiencing a cardiac –related incident is very important to us.

“We have placed these in local locations within our branch network to offer as much coverage as possible, and would like to make the local community aware that they are accessible to the public and available to use if required”.

With a representative in each branch responsible for the equipment, JP Corry welcomes members of the local community to visit their local site for guidance and familiarisation with the equipment.

The initiative will continue into 2018 where further defibrillators will be installed as part of the programme.

JP Corry was awarded the CORE Standard – The Standard for Responsible Business – by Business in the Community Northern Ireland last June, recognising the company as an accredited leader in Corporate Social Responsibility.

To find out more about JP Corry visit www.jpcorry.com