Harvey Road School has been presented with a defibrillator after a series of generous donations ended a year-long fundraising campaign.

Staff took part in a training session by SADS UK, who also supplied the defibrillator, to learn how to use the life-saving device.

Last May the school carried out a fun run to raise money to purchase a defibrillator and since then the student body has carried out various activities to add to this amount.

The rest of the £1,600 cost was met by a charity set up by Brenda and Barrie Irons who lost their son, aged 13, to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome and St Albans-based KDW Financial services.

School secretary Clare Wallis took part in the training.

She said: "It was brilliant training. If you were ever in the situation and having to use the defibrillator, I am sure the training would kick in.

"The machines are so simple and it was good to see how you couldn’t really go wrong when using them.

"It was really good."