Hockey event raises more than £1,000 for Leon’s Legacy charity

More than 100 people came to the event to support the recently-founded charity which aims to put defibrillators in schools up and down the country.

The charity is named after Leon Smith, who tragically passed away in January this year when he suffered a cardiac arrest while working at Annesley Primary School in Kirkby-in-Ashfield.

Staff at the school began CPR immediately after he collapsed, and ran to the nearest community defibrillator, but were tragically unable to save him.

Following his death, Leon’s family began raising money for a defibrillator for the school, so that if an incident like that ever occurred again, staff would have life-saving equipment to hand.

Prior to the hockey tournament, Leon’s family had managed to raise enough money so far for five defibrillators, as well as being able to donate £500 to the Air Ambulance and £500 to the Ashfield Community Responders.

Those defibrillators have been donated to five different primary schools.

And CPR training has been offered to the staff of these schools by Holly Younger, Leon’s oldest daughter, who is a cardiac nurse.

​The event at Goosedale sports club featured 12 teams made up of players from Mansfield Hockey Club, Nottingham Hockey Club, Ashfield Aztecs Hockey Club and Redhill Hockey Club.

The trophies for the tournament were kindly donated by the women’s teams.

During the presentation of the trophies, players from both the Mansfield and Ashfield Aztecs clubs presented Leon’s daughter with a defibrillator and defibrillator cabinet, which they had been able to purchase through donations made by local businesses.

Holly said: “In total, the fun day raised £1,155, which will enable the charity to buy two more defibrillators.

“This means that in total, Leon’s Legacy will have donated eight defibrillators to schools so far.

“Leon’s family would like to thank all of the hockey players and supporters for their generosity.

“They were hoping to secure one defibrillator from the fun day, but in the end exceeded expectations by securing three.”

n For more information about Leon’s Legacy, including news of fundraising events, follow the charity on its Facebook page at @LeonsLegacyDefibs.