FUNDRAISERS have donated £2,000 to St John Ambulance to provide volunteers in North Yorkshire with life-saving equipment.

The Mark Master Masons of North and East Yorkshire, which operates 47 lodges in the area, voted to support the first aid charity following nominations from charity stewards who propose a number of good causes and local charities to back each year.

The cash injection will be used to fund two automated external defibrillators – machines that shock the heart to restart after a cardiac arrest – at the charity’s bases in Thirsk, at Thirsk Indsustrial Park and north of York, at Clifton Moor. The machines will be for use by volunteers on duty at events in the surrounding areas.

Cardiac arrest sufferers’ chance of survival rises to 70 per cent with the use of a defibrillator within three minutes.