Launched in 2015, Medicash partnered with the Liverpool BID Company and the North West Ambulance Service to introduce the CardiACT project – an initiative designed to ensure that no one in Liverpool city centre is ever more than two minutes away from a defibrillator in the event of a cardiac arrest. This ambitious goal was achieved in 2020, but the work doesn’t stop there.

In the UK, it’s estimated that someone dies from cardiovascular disease every three minutes. Without intervention, the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest are between just 2-5%. However, if a defibrillator is used within two minutes, the survival rate can increase to as high as 80%, dropping by around 10% with each minute that passes.

“It’s incredible to think we’ve been supporting this initiative for ten years,” says Andy Abernethy, Head of Marketing at Medicash. “With cardiovascular disease responsible for a quarter of all deaths in the UK, we couldn’t be prouder to play our part in helping people survive cardiac arrests and recover as quickly as possible.”

As part of the project, Liverpool’s iconic red telephone boxes have been given a new lease of life as easily recognisable homes for these vital devices. The latest defibrillators have been installed at Lime Street, Old Haymarket, and Crosshall Street.

Each unit is checked weekly by the BID Street Ranger Team to ensure it’s ready for any emergency – another step in Medicash’s ongoing mission to make Liverpool a safer place for residents, visitors, and businesses alike.