A MUM who lost her daughter to a sudden cardiac arrest at just 18-years-old has donated a defibrillator to a sports and social club.

Diane Cohen and her civil partner Maxine Cohen have been raising money for Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome and have donated the life-saving piece of equipment to the Woodlands Club in Basildon.

Diane lost her daughter, Rachael Kiely-Cohen. 18, after a sudden cardiac arrest in 2014, and since then she has been raising money for SADS.

Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome is a registered charity in the UK and this is the ninth defibrillator donation Diane has made. 

Diane said: “We have been raising money for SADS as Rachael has her own Memory Fund with SADS UK, which means any money we raise can be used to place defibrillators within our community and the defibrillator we’ve placed at The Woodlands Club is our ninth one.

“We have enough money in Rachael’s Fund to place an outside defibrillator in a heated locked cabinet, which means if anyone needs to access it, all they need to do is dial the emergency service and they will be given the code to open it and this way it is available 24/7 for the community to use.

“I’m just an angel mum trying to make a positive out of a parent’s worst nightmare.”

According to the British Heart Foundation, for every minute someone is in cardiac arrest without CPR and access to a defibrillator, their chance of survival drops by up to 10 per cent.

Campaigners have called for all sports centres to be equipped with the equipment. 

Toni Beszelzen and his wife Jennie, who are managers at the Woodlands Club, were more than happy to accept the donation offer. 

Tony said: “They had raised enough for their ninth one to be placed and offered it to us.

“Instead of putting it inside we have had it installed outside in a heated defibrillator unit for the whole community to use, but let’s hope it never does need using.

“We all completed our training on Monday, along with some of our staff and we invited some members of the club along for it too.”

“At the club we are now doing charity events and quizzes to help raise their tenth defibrillator that can be donated.”