At parkrun, the safety and wellbeing of our community is our top priority. Every parkrun event is equipped with a life-saving defibrillator to help in instances of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). However, to ensure these critical devices are always ready to perform when needed, they must be replaced at least every eight years.

Your support is vital in maintaining our defibrillators in peak condition. Regular maintenance is essential, including checking and replacing pads and batteries and monitoring expiry dates. This ongoing care ensures that our defibrillators are always effective and reliable in an emergency.

Since 2011, parkrun in Australia has expanded to 500 communities around the country with more than one million people having taken part.

As encouraging as our expansion is for the health and happiness of people around Australia, parkrun must remain committed to ensuring the safety of our participants. No matter the location of a parkrun, we believe everyone deserves the same right to a safe and secure event.

This means preparing for the unexpected wherever we can. One of the most essential aspects to prepare for is SCA, which causes a death every 80 minutes in Australia. SCA can affect anyone, anywhere.

Each minute without Defibrillation reduces the chances of survival by 9%.

As a Global health charity, committed to maximising health and wellbeing, we believe in the highest standard of safety, which means maintaining equipment of the highest standard. No defib, no parkrun.

Our parkrun Australia Defib Appeal has been established to ensure we can continue to provide the highest standard of safety for participants.

Your donation will support existing parkrun events along with helping the establishment of parkruns in more locations.

Why are defibs important?

According to a study lead by Monash University PhD Scholar, Briad Haskins:

“Remember for best outcomes, you need to get an AED to someone within five minutes of them collapsing.”

According to the Australia Bureau of Statistics, almost 2% of people in Australia will experience a heart attack sometime in their life.

• The rate of people reporting heart attacks has increased 6% since 2017-18. 
• Heart attacks are responsible for causing almost 1 in 25 of all deaths.
• One person dies from a heart attack approximately every 80 minutes.
• One person every nine minutes is hospitalised due to a heart attack.
• People living in Inner Regional Australia were more likely to have heart, stroke and vascular disease than those in Major Cities (7.3% compared to 4.6%)
• According to Heart Research Australia using a defibrillator within the first minute of sudden cardiac arrest, can potentially increase the chance of survival rate to 90%.