Our son Tom Cooney died at the age of 28.

He was playing rugby when his heart stopped beating.

The post mortem showed that he suffered from an undiagnosed genetic heart condition, Arrythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy.

Between 10 and 12 young people aged 18-35 die every week from this and other undiagnosed heart problems. Often such deaths occur when playing competitive sports.

Tom’s friends tried to give him CPR but it didn’t work. In cases like these CPR is only effective in 6% of the time.

Defibrillators are a device that can dramatically improve the chances of survival in this situation. Tom might still be alive today if there had been a defibrillator at the sports club he was playing at.

Some schools and sports grounds have taken it upon themselves to get a defibrillator, but there is nothing that makes it compulsory in law.

In 2017 a Bill was presented to Parliament which would have made Defibrillators compulsory in schools, leisure centres, sports centres and major public places, but due to the 2017 election the Defibrillator (Availability) Bill was tabled never became law.

We don’t want Tom’s death to be meaningless, so we have started this petition for this Bill to come into effect - we want to make sure all major public places are required by ław to have a cardiac defibrillator.

To avoid other families going through the heartbreak of the loss of a child, please sign this petition to introduce defibrillators in public places.

Thank you Alison and Kevin Cooney.