Cosby RFC are a small village club and play on a pitch rented from the Cosby Parish Council. Originally, the land was set aside for community sports and Cosby RFC managed to secure the permission to play there about 20+ yrs ago and recently secured the tenure for 10 years to help secure the club’s playing future.

The ground – Victory Park, is a public park, and used by everyone. There is a cricket pitch, Junior and Senior football and Cosby RFC. Cosby Village Hall is also situated on the same site where the changing rooms are located for anyone using the ground.

The defibrillator is for everyone in the community of Cosby. Whilst Cosby RFC had the funds immediately available to be able to pay for half, the Leicestershire Rugby Union paid the other half, but the whole community reaps the benefits as the equipment is installed on the outside wall of the changing rooms, allowing all sports clubs to have access. All coaches have been invited to training sessions along with the gentleman that runs the Village Hall bar and also runs the junior football. He is the lead contact and lives in the village. A local electrician also got involved and installed the defib at no charge.

The project was also in conjunction with the Community Heartbeat Trust, the leading charity in community public access defibrillator schemes and who have partnered with the RFU to provide support to Clubs, Schools, Colleges/ Universities with all aspects of procurement, training, governance and maintenance of automated external defibrillators (AED).

It is hoped that others in the community will become trained as the village hall has a number of groups using it, from line dancing to sewing! Cosby RFC would like as many people in the community and those that use the facilities to be aware they now have this piece of life saving equipment, a hugely valuable resource that may, one day, save a life.

If you would like to find out more about your club obtaining an AED, then please take a look at the Community Heartbeat Website for further details.