Earlier this year, a team of teenage girls from the Westside Strikers Football Club witnessed the death of one of their opponent’s fathers.
The girls were playing an away game at Brighton when the man collapsed and died on the side of the pitch.
Club president Joanne Ciantar said the incident was distressing for the under 13/14 girls and their families, but it started an important discussion about the Caroline Springs club’s preparedness for a serious health scare.
“We have 400 families at the club – we have a lot of grandparents and a couple of our coaches are type 1 insulin dependent diabetics,” Ms Ciantar said.
So the club applied to the state government’s defibrillators grants program.
Recently Ms Ciantar found out the Westside Strikers were among 150 successful grant recipients and would have one of the life-saving machines installed this year.
St Johns will also come and provide proper training for staff on how to use the machine.
