A furious mum has accused Labour councillors of trying to take credit for a life-saving defibrillator paid for by her family.
The public access machine was installed outside a GP surgery in Kenton, Newcastle, last year in memory of John Hindmarsh, who died after suffering heart failure in 2019. It was funded by his sons Colin and Callum, ex-wife Kath Somerville Hindmarsh, and her partner Carl Bell in the hope of helping other people in need of emergency care.
But Kath was left “totally disgusted” after it was listed in a Labour newsletter promoting new defibrillators being installed as part of Newcastle City Council’s ‘Heart Start City’ scheme and funded from Kenton councillors’ ward budget. The leaflet does not state that the defibrillator, which is outside the Hillsview Surgery in Shandon Way, was paid for by the council or Labour, but names it in an article about new machines “being rolled out across more Kenton neighbourhoods as part of the 'Heart Start' programme” without mentioning its origins.
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Kenton Labour councillor Stephen Lambert said that the party was “happy to acknowledge the generosity of Mrs Hindmarsh and her family” and had noted in previous newsletters that it had been donated by a resident. But Kath, who received a copy of the latest Kenton Voice through her door last week, believes that the article “makes it look as though they [Labour councillors] are taking the credit”.
The 48-year-old, who works for the Department for Work and Pensions, said: “I picked up this leaflet and I thought it was terrible, it is absolutely disgraceful. It doesn’t say directly that they have funded it, but they have made it look that way.
“I look after six defibrillators with my partner and we always fundraise to put them in because there are just not enough out there. We work with the charity North East Hearts with Goals and are just a little fish in the large ocean of what they do.
“When that leaflet came through the post it made me quite angry. All the local people around here know that the defibrillator was provided by us.
“There was absolutely no involvement from Labour or from the council, we had no help from them." Kath added that the upset was made worse as the newsletter was delivered just a few days before what would have been John’s 55th birthday.
A previous edition of Kenton Voice from last winter did state that the defibrillator, which has been used nine times since it was installed in January 2021, had been "kindly donated by a local resident".
Coun Lambert said: ''We are happy to acknowledge the generosity of Mrs Hindmarsh and her family in supplying a defibrillator outside the Shandon Way GP surgery in memory of Kath's late ex-husband. We did, in our winter 2021-22 newsletter Kenton Voice and in various neighbourhood letters, highlight a local family had donated this defibrillator, but did not name them out of respect to their privacy.
''It was following the Hindmarsh's family actions, and as part of our commitment to Newcastle becoming a Heart Start City, that local councillors found funding for an additional two defibrillators. It was these that the latest article in Kenton Voice was about – though all defibrillators were listed, including those of the family and the one installed by the Community Health Partnership outside the Kenton Centre. These were a summary for information.''
The Kenton Ward Committee has agreed to fund new machines outside the Duke of Wellington Pub and outside the Church of Ascension, while one is also being installed outside the Kenton Centre by the Community Health Partnership.
