Hucknall's Arc Cinema on final push for defibrillator appeal that means so much to staff member Kelly

A special Christmas raffle is currently being organised, with prizes donated by businesses like Tesco, Wilko and Mrs C’s Vintage Tearoom in the town, which staff hope will give them the money they need to buy the defibrillator and the case for it.

And for one staff member, Kelly Golding, the appeal is especially poignant.

She said: “My dad suffered a heart attack in the street and the paramedic used a defibrillator to save him at the time.

"He was dead for nine minutes but the paramedic saw him fall and got the defibrillator and saved his life.

"My dad is no longer with us but he didn’t pass away from that.

"When they brought him back, he had early onset dementia and then he had cancer but I got another two years with him that I wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t been able to use a defibrillator to save him that time."

Now, Kelly is helping make the final push to get the defibrillator she feels the area of the town where the cinema is really needs.

And she has been delighted by the support of the community and local businesses.

She continued: “Even before we got any buckets out or anything, we found the Cowshed and Specsavers were raising money for us.

"I happened to mention it to the optometrist when I took my daughter in and I wasn’t in my work uniform or anything like that, and next thing they were raising money for us.

"It was the same weekend they had the Dancing Grannies on and they collected money for us and the Cowshed got their defibrillator appeal box back out and have been collecting again for us too.

"We’ve got a big chunk of what we need and I hope this raffle will be the final push.

"Down this end of Hucknall we need a defibrillator.

"There’s a lot of accidents on the road outside our building and we need one at our venue.

"We were going to start the appeal when we first re-opened but then the Cowshed was doing theirs so we stepped back but now we thought we’re going to get more people in at Christmas so lets try and get the money raised.”