AED fundraiser a success!

AED fundraiser is a success!

We love feel-good stories, and this is one for the books. Christchurch mum, Aisling O’Riordan and her son, Sawyer combined their love of the outdoors with their annual tradition of fundraising for a charity in lieu of their own birthday presents. 

To celebrate O’Riordan’s 40th birthday, and Sawyer’s 6th, they raised over $3000 to install an AED in their suburb of St Albans in Christchurch. The mum and son duo share a passion for hiking and have completed tracks including the Rakiura track in Stewart Island (32km) and St James Walkway (68km) as part of the fundraiser.

The two gained attention from Stuff in an article recognising their generous community spirit.

“Friends and customers of Heart Saver alerted us to Aisling and Sawyer’s story, and we welcomed the opportunity to get involved” says Helen Mander (Director at Heart Saver). 

“Aisling’s enthusiasm was infectious! We were able to learn more about Aisling’s local community, and where the AED was planned to be donated to provide the most positive community impact. We worked together on storage and location advice and are proud that another Heart Saver AED has now been installed in the community with an outdoor cabinet, ensuring it is available and accessible to the community 24/7”.

Aisling and Sawyer generously donated the AED and Cabinet package to St Francis of Assisi Catholic School on 370 Innes Road.  They also registered it on the AED Locations app which means people can find it when they need to.

Aisling proudly states “Community AED fundraiser project complete!!! So no birthday presents for either of us this year meant very generous donations by friends and family from near and far to our fundraiser. We are so pleased to have achieved this and be able to donate an outdoor AED unit to our local community of St Albans here in Christchurch.”

“Thank you to everyone for helping us make this possible and accessible for everyone in the community. Your generosity has provided the people of Christchurch with this life-saving piece of equipment. A special mention to Heart Saver for providing the unit.”

Congratulations Aisling and Sawyer! Your generosity and community spirit is inspiring.  It was a pleasure to help out.