Nottinghamshire younger farmer Sophie Owen, 22, is on a mission to teach farmers and companies about coronary heart well being after tragically dropping her father to cardiac arrest in 2019.
Sophie says her father was simply 54 years previous on the time, and appeared outwardly match and wholesome.
He was recurrently lively on the farm, however had suffered from hypertension.
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Whereas her father had acquired CPR from a neighbour on the time of his collapse, Sophie found that his possibilities of survival would have improved had that they had entry to a defibrillator.
Sadly, as a consequence of their rural location, it took too lengthy for the ambulance and very important tools to reach.
Decided to be a drive for optimistic change, Sophie, who has not too long ago graduated from the College of Leicester, has established “Coronary heart Well being in Enterprise”, a devoted LinkedIn group to focus on companies and unfold consciousness of coronary heart illness, CPR data, and encourage websites to put in defibrillators.
Sophie explains: “Taking our well being severely is everybody’s duty.
“Studying how you can assist somebody who has skilled a cardiac arrest signifies that in the event you ever end up in that scenario, you understand what to do, how you can assist, and importantly, how you can try to save that individual’s life.”
Saying {that a} stigma nonetheless exists round in search of assist, Sophie has praised the work of rural charity Farming Neighborhood Community for normalising conversations about well being within the office.
She says that her father was “cussed, and maybe a bit scared” when it got here to asking for assist.
“All of us say ‘it gained’t occur to me’ in the case of our well being, and are sometimes too busy to search out the time to correctly take care of ourselves.
“By the point my father did go to the physician, he was already affected by extraordinarily hypertension.
“Possibly if he had gone to see a physician sooner, he would nonetheless be right here in the present day.”
Sophie has since efficiently campaigned for a defibrillator to be put in on her college campus, and is on a mission to encourage extra companies and farms to do the identical.
“Farming is on the coronary heart of so many issues on this world,” she says. “As a neighborhood, we have to come collectively to look after and take care of each other. All of us have an element to play.”
