THE family of a Partington woman who collapsed and died after a cardiac arrest has launched a defibrillator campaign - to replace one that was vandalised a couple of months ago.

Seventy-three year-old Margaret Pickering suffered a cardiac arrest while she was at Partington Working Men's Club with friends, on April 23.

Club members Jessica Wallace and Liam Ward carried out CPR until paramedics arrived, but she died 10 days later in hospital.

But the great grandmother's family believe she might have been saved if the life-saving defibrillator had been available at Partington Shopping Centre, just 350 yards away.

Margaret's granddaughter, Fay Wilson, has launched a campaign to raise £2,000 to get the damaged defibrillator box replaced. The family would also like to get another installed in another part of the town.

Defibrillators can ‘shock’ a person’s heart into restarting and, if this can be done in the first few minutes, patients have a 60-70 per cent chance of making a full recovery.

Fay, aged 25, said: "It's frustrating that we have all lost the head of our family. Especially when she very much could have been saved - we had the equipment but someone decided to steal it.

"We need to raise awareness. People need to understand how important these machines are. We couldn't save Margaret, but we can save someone else."

The defibrillator was vandalised in March, just a couple of months after it was installed by the North West Ambulance Service.

To support the campaign click here.