A Life Saving Phone Box

The main focus on my journey stone is the phone box. This phone box is situated in a prominent position in Big Sand, a small crofting township west of Gairloch and overlooking the island of Longa. There is no longer a phone in it but instead has been taken over by the local community who installed a life saving defibrillator.

In 2018 a Gairloch resident, (Cherill Parry) fell ill and was saved in part due to the actions of her neighbour who was able to intervene with the aid of a defibrillator available at the Gairloch Community Hall. Big Sand resident, Peter Wimpenny came up with the idea for our local community to adopt the phone box and install a defibrillator. Many of the local residents have had tuition in how to use the ‘defib’ machine. In order to advertise the presence of the defibrillator, I painted a mural featuring our local coastline and a sea eagle. The mural is affixed to the back of the phone box.

It seemed appropriate to invite Cherill to come and officially cut the ribbon to open the Big Sand phone box, and on 29th June 2019 we had a lovely party in glorious sunshine to celebrate. The new defibrillator is now on the radar of the ambulance service who can advise people of its whereabouts in an emergency. The defibrillator has already been used to save at least one life!