A Frome campaigner has presented a life-saving piece of equipment to the town’s Victoria Hospital.

Shirley Wort handed over a £4,000 defibrillator to the hospital’s deputy matron Teresa Ashman as part of an ongoing fundraising drive being supported by the Somerset Standard.

So far, Mrs Wort and her family have raised £1,000 towards the machine but it has been bought in advance by the charity CRY, Cardiac Risk in the Young.

She and her family are now busy trying to raise the additional £3,000.

It was four years ago last Friday that Mrs Wort’s son, 28-year-old Julian, died suddenly from a rare heart condition.

He had earlier shown symptoms of an illness but doctors had not realised that he had an enlarged heart muscle.

After his tragic death, medical tests revealed that Julian had hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, one of several illnesses known as sudden death syndrome.

Since then Mrs Wort of Westwood Drive and her family have been fundraising in Julian’s memory and have already collected more than £10,000 to help pay for an ECG machine for Frome Medical Practice.

Now the family’s aim is to pay for the lightweight defibrillator, a machine that shocks the heart and is used to monitor people with chest pains.

Nurses at the hospital have been trained to use it and it also contains a memory card that logs the details of the shock administered.

Mrs Ashman said: “This is a state-of-the-art piece of equipment and because we have been able to have it earlier we can now use it and it may certainly save lives.”

Fundraising towards the machine will continue on April 5 when Mrs Wort is organising an Easter prize bingo at the South Parade Club.

She is also planning a disco at the Frome Football Club on April 24.

She said: “Julian died four years ago last Friday and it would have been his 33^rd birthday on Monday so it is good to be able to hand over the defibrillator now, particularly at this time of year."