Wales holiday park brings medical lifeline to local community

Staff and the family owners of a mid-Wales holiday park were joined this month by local village residents for a training session in vital life-saving skills.

It followed the recent installation on Warren Parc in Powys of a defibrillator, bought by the family-owned business following a series of successful fundraising events.

Led by volunteers from the Welsh Hearts charity, the session showed how the new equipment could be used to save the life of a person suffering cardiac arrest..

Available to holiday guests and the local community, the fully automated unit provides simple audio instructions which allow its use even by those with no medical experience.

Julia Warren-Kyle, co-owner of Warren Parc, said the defibrillator could make a crucial difference, especially in summer when busier roads could delay the arrival of an ambulance.

The holiday park was helped in raising the £1000 cost of the equipment by owners of the 100 holiday caravans and lodges who attended the fetes and other special events staged over the past year:

“The equipment is, of course, something which we hope will never be needed – but we are mindful of its life-saving potential, especially in a remote rural area,” said Julia, a former nurse.

“Sudden cardiac arrest is a major killer in Britain, and a close-at-hand defibrillator on the park could dramatically increase a person’s life chances.

“It will be available round-the-clock on the park to anybody living in or visiting the area, and will help to give everyone peace of mind,” she added.

Julia is helped in the running of the park by her husband Neil, and it first started welcoming guests over 45 years ago after being established by Julia’s parents Ivan and Elizabeth.

Based in the picture-postcard Dovey Valley near the market town of Machynlleth, the ten-acre park is just a short drive from some of Wales’s finest sandy beaches.

The family’s care of the natural world has been praised by botanist David Bellamy who once again this year presented the park with his prestigious Conservation Award at its top gold level.

Professor Bellamy made special mention of the many wild flowers and other high pollen-rich blooms which provide vital foraging for honey bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Helping to make Warren Parc as welcoming to wildlife as it is to human guests is groundsman Trefor Davies who first joined the park 30 years ago straight from a local school.

Trefor’s dedication and hard work were celebrated at the recent medical training session with the presentation to him by the family of an Exceptional Service Award.

The award is the highest honour given to outstanding park personnel by the British Holiday & Home Parks Association, the park industry’s professional body.

Trefor lives in the nearby village of Penegoes with his wife Shelly, and is an enthusiastic volunteer with the Corris Vintage Steam Railway, Wales’s oldest narrow gauge railway.

There is more information about Warren Parc on its website at www.warrenparc.co.uk