Lifesaving equipment is now in place at Helston's Tesco as part of an ongoing campaign to place defibrillators throughout the town.

Tesco has paid out £850 to install the machine, used to help victims of heart attacks, and asked Kathryn Hinds of the Andrew Oliver Big Heart Fund to open it. 

The defibrillator has been placed to the right of the customer services desk, at the front of the store, and was the number one thing customers said they wanted when questionned by staff. 

Dan O'Shaughnessy, from Helston Tesco, said: "We were more than happy to oblige with the help of the British Heart Foundation."

The Andrew Oliver Big Heart Fund was set up by Kathryn following the death of her partner.

He collapsed and died outside their house just before Christmas 2014 and Kathryn vowed that other families should not have to go through the same heartache.

Explaining the charity at last week's Annual Town Meeting, Tim Grattan Kane said on her behalf: "Kathryn decided that to avoid other families suffering so tragic a loss she would raise funds to purchase defibrillators."

Friends and family raised money to place the first defibrillator at Helston Cricket Club.

With funds leftover they raised more to buy a second, for Penhellis Community Care, serving the area of the Water-ma-Trout industrial estate.

A third was bought for the Old Cattle Market with a £500 grant from Helston Town Council - and as a result the one already based at the nearby Lakeside Cafe has gone to Helston Community College, until they raise funds for their own.

Within 12 months the charity has provided seven defibrillators, with another at the bowling club, one waiting to be installed at the Guildhall and talks to install one outside the National Trust stable block at Penrose.

Mr Grattan Kane added: "The objective is to have sufficient machines in Helston so you will never be more than two minutes away from one."

He said research showed that in Washington, where this was the case, survival rates were approximately 40 per cent - as opposed to just ten per cent when relying on waiting for the emergency services.

In one town in Norway, where there is a defibrillator in every public building, this rises to 60 per cent.

"That's where it should be," said Mr Grattan Kane. "We are working to make Helston a safer place for everybody that lives and works here."