Wells Community Hospital Trust boosted by donation from the Santander Foundation

Welsh Hearts has received £5,000 to fund the installation of defibrillators in public places across Wales. The aim in providing public access defibrillators is to support local communities in dramatically improving the chances of survival for a person who is having a heart attack.

The donation was provided by the Santander Foundation, which offers Discovery Grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities.

Since 2013, Welsh Hearts has played a leading role in improving heart health in Wales, work which is vitally important since one third of all deaths in the country are the result of cardiovascular disease. The grant will help the charity to continue its life saving work in a number of ways including: providing more public access defibrillators in Wales; growing the multitude of individuals who are trained in CPR and the use of defibrillators; and leading the campaign for better awareness of cardiovascular health in Wales through events such as heart screening sessions.

To date, the charity has supplied 900 public access defibrillators, trained over 35,000 people and screened more than 1,400 young people for heart abnormalities across Wales.

Sharon Owen, Charity Director at Welsh Hearts, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to receive this grant from Santander. As a small charity run predominantly by volunteers, this donation will have a huge impact on what we are able to achieve.

“In keeping with the launch of our new appeal, ‘Keep Wales ticking’, We have ambitious plans to place 500 defibrillators into the community over the course of the year and this donation will help us on our way to achieving our ambitions and ultimately, will help us save lives.”

Suzanne Williams, Branch Director at Santander’s Cardiff branch, said: “The Santander Foundation makes hundreds of donations every year to good causes throughout the UK. We are committed to playing a key part in the community and we are delighted to be supporting Welsh Hearts and hope the donation makes a real difference to local people.”

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Notes to Editors:

Media Contact
Leonora Burtenshaw at Santander 
Emailleonora.burtenshaw@santander.co.uk      Tel: 020 7756 4543

Sharon Owen at Welsh Hearts 
EmailSharon@welsheharts.org      Tel: 02922 402 670

About Welsh Hearts

Founded in 2013 by Sharon Owen, Welsh Hearts Calonnau Cymru was set up to save lives across Wales by preventing and managing heart disease. The charity has trained over 35,000 people in CPR and has placed 900 defibrillators in communities and schools in Wales.

The aim of its work is to improve the chances of those that have cardiac arrests outside of hospital, where the first few minutes are absolutely crucial in saving their lives.

In January 2016, Welsh Hearts launched its Heart Screening Wales initiative, which sees it working in partnership with Cardiac Health Diagnostics to provide heart screening for those aged 18-35. To date, Welsh Hearts has screened over 1,400 hearts for heart conditions.

For more information please visit: www.welshhearts.org  


Santander Foundation
The Santander Foundation is at the heart of the Bank’s community activities, providing grants to small charities and social enterprises working with disadvantaged people to fund skills, knowledge and innovation projects across the UK. Discovery Grants of up to £5,000 are available to support three types of activity:

  • Explorer: improving people’s knowledge
  • Transformer: supporting skills and experience
  • Changemaker: innovative solutions to social challenges

Over the last five years, the Santander Foundation has provided £26 million in funding to 13,914 UK charities through Discovery Grants and Staff Matched Donations. For more information please visit: www.santanderfoundation.org.uk

Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 31 March 2018, the bank has c19,500 employees. It serves around 14 million active customers, via a nationwide branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking; and 64 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.