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.
