Defibrillator campaign set up in daughter's memory

A football fan has launched a campaign to have a defibrillator in every corner of every football ground in memory of his late daughter.

Lauren Walker, died following an illness in 2023 aged 29, prompting her dad, Paul Gregory, to set up a campaign known as 'Lauren's Legacy'.

Sheffield Wednesday supporter Mr Gregory said the campaign would save lives and help keep Lauren's memory alive.

It launched at the club's home game against Stoke City at Hillsborough on Saturday, a year to the day since Lauren's funeral.

Mr Gregory, who is known as 'Tango', said Lauren had suffered a cardiac arrest three years ago, but was successfully revived by paramedics with the use of a defibrillator.

He told BBC Look North: "Lauren was my princess. She was everything to me.

"I knew I needed to do something to keep her going in everyone else's life.

"Today is probably the hardest day of my life, but at least I'm doing something now and I know she'll be here forever with me."

Mr Gregory added that the perception that all 92 clubs in the English Football League had defibrillators was mistaken.

"It's such a basic thing. Over the last few weeks there have been many incidents where defibrillators could have saved lives if they had been there," he said.

"So we're putting something in place now where we're going to start saving lives."

Mr Gregory's efforts have already secured an extra four defibrillators at Hillsborough.

Sergio Petrucci, from the Red Sky Foundation charity, which is aiding the campaign, said cardiac arrests are "unfortunately happening more and more often".

He said: "We want to give people the best chance of surviving a cardiac arrest because the stats say only one in 10 people survive. Every second really does count.

"To have one close by to any situation in the event of a medical emergency improves the chances of surviving by a considerable amount."

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