Inside JumpStart: A Conversation with Campaign Director Jon McLeod

JumpStart is a new campaign calling for defibrillators to be fitted in every new car sold in the UK. We sat down and chatted to it’s campaign director, Jon McLeod, to learn more about the campaign’s vital work with the government.

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MyDefib: So, what sparked the idea for the JumpStart campaign?

Jon: The idea came from the philanthropist, Jonathan Harris CBE, who funds the campaign. He’d become increasingly frustrated by how inaccessible defibrillators often are. Too many are locked away behind coded cabinets or simply aren’t close enough when someone needs them.

There are lots of good intentions around public access defibrillators, but the reality is they’re not always available when every second counts. He wanted to change that.

MyDefib: So, you think the problem is to do with accessibility?

Jon: Most definitely. There was an investigative report by The Observer last year which found that many public defibs were not maintained. * Defibrillators which communities had invested in had been hung on the wall and that was it.

There’s been no thought for what their availability means and the opportunity they present. It seems to us myopic not to wake up to the fact that the full deployment of defibrillators is something which is going to save a huge number of lives. There are three big preventable things here.

MyDefib: Saving lives and -?

Jon: Saving a large amount of money because the cost of premature death through cardiac arrest is significant. It’s also preventable distress for the families of the deceased.

MyDefib: Going back to the campaign, what would you say have been its key achievements to-date?

Jon: Good question. We’re pretty new but we’ve already developed a fully workable legislative proposal and have successfully secured parliamentary engagement. We’ve had active discussions with the Transport Committee, which has just published our submission on its website and we’re in an active dialogue with parliamentarians and Department of Transport officials. We have some good conversations going there and we’re getting a good audience in Parliament. Officials have been conducting an internal review of what’s known as the carriage of safety equipment. In other words, what equipment you must have in a car.

We say that the review of the carriage of safety equipment should recommend the carriage of defibrillators, either as standard, mandated or as best practice. In any event, we want to get it into the literature regarding safety equipment. Knowledge of CPR has been added to the highway code but what’s the point testing people on CPR if there’s going to be no proper access to defibrillators?

MyDefib: You say, on the website, that you’re aiming for a mention in the King’s Speech.

Jon: Absolutely. We didn’t manage it this year, but Andy Burnham’s Cabinet could very readily include it in his King’s Speech.

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MyDefib: So, what’s next for JumpStart?

Jon: We’re going to increase our engagement with healthcare professionals because we’re aware that there is a cohort among cardiologists who are particularly interested in community cardiology and who want to empower the public to do everything that can be done in order to ensure that before the patient arrives in A&E, they’ve actually received some kind of immediate intervention.

The other big push will be about engagement with Andy Burnham’s team. We also want to reach out to the British Heart Foundation, the Red Cross, St John Ambulance and others to invite them to support and endorse our proposal, to say they think that JumpStart is a good idea. And, of course, we have to talk to the car manufacturers. Not just the heritage brands like Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen, but also the incoming, new brands that are really setting the pace.

Given the cost of a new car, the additional cost of fitting a defibrillator should be in there with the mud flaps. Manufacturers and car retailers should see this as an opportunity to demonstrate the fact that they really care about the people who buy their cars and their families. There’s quite a powerful message in there that they can deploy.

MyDefib: It’s exciting stuff.

Jon: It is. We may get an early adopter. When there’s a breakthrough with one manufacturer seizing first mover advantage, that’s when it starts to happen. And it’s not just about the defib on the road and being able to be a Good Samaritan. The defib is at home, parked on the drive. If you need it in the home, you can run out and get it.

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MyDefib: It sounds like JumpStart matches with a lot of the messaging MyDefib is trying to get across with HeartHero.

Jon: Absolutely. If we do any kind of political events in the Autumn, we’d love to take the HeartHero along. Technology these days is all about the format that it’s presented in. The HeartHero product is clearly a format which has in mind durability and usability and ease of maintenance.

* The Observer found evidence that linked faulty and inaccessible defibrillators to dozens of deaths in the UK.