Burnley Leisure has donated a life-saving defibrillator to parkrun to help ensure safer sport for the participants.
With the growing popularity of parkrun, event organisers across the country had been advised to equip the event with a portable defibrillator, which in the event of a cardiac-related incident could help save someone’s life.
Burnley Leisure stepped in and provided a brand new defibrillator for Burnley parkrun, which will be on hand every Saturday to add to the safety of the runners.
Paul Foster, development manager for Burnley Leisure, said: “When we heard that Burnley parkrun needed the defibrillator unit we were more than happy to help out. We also have similar units in our sports centres and know how important they can be.”
“We brought parkrun to Burnley three years ago with the ambition of getting 120, maybe 150 runners turning up each week and now, thanks to the dedication of the organisers we are seeing far more than that, which is fantastic.”
Burnley parkrun is a weekly free 5k running event which takes place in Towneley Park every Saturday morning at 9am.
Established in 2012, Burnley parkrun has been going from strength to strength, attracting more than 150 runners every week on average.
Last month parkrun had its biggest single attendance with 328 runners, proving that running is certainly on the up in Burnley.
Parkrun organiser Karen Holland said: “We are very grateful to Burnley Leisure for providing the defibrillator for us. While we hope never to have to use it, it gives us peace of mind that it is available in case of emergency.”