Northamptonshire village bakery raises £1,200 for British Heart Foundation after 'traumatic experience' in January

A customer suffered a cardiac arrest while visiting the High Street shop earlier this year when business owner Eleanor Broome, 28, and team member Rebekah Campbell, 21 were working in the bakery.

While the customer was helped by family members and has since made a full recovery, the incident prompted the business to raise awareness for CPR and the importance of knowing where to find a defibrillator.

On October 18, just two days after British Heart Foundation’s Restart a Heart Day, the shop put together a community event where £1,200 was raised for the charity.

Eleanor said: “After what happened, I wanted to make something positive from such a traumatic experience. Not enough people know CPR, what to do in an emergency or where to find their nearest defibrillator.

“My hope was that everyone who came along would leave having learned something that could one day save a life.”

The interactive community event on Sunday included hands-on CPR demonstrations, as well as practical advice from a local community first responder and a London Ambulance Service paramedic.

The nearest defibrillator to Els Bakes is at The Working Men’s Club in London Road.

Eleanor said: “In the days after the cardiac arrest, I honestly didn’t know whether we’d be able to walk back into the ‘Pink Shop’ again.

"To have gone from that experience to creating something so positive for our community is incredible.

“We’re a small business in a small village so raising this amount of money and awareness means so much to us.

"Community is everything and we’re grateful to our amazing customers, friends, family and even people we’ve never met who came together to support the event.”