The family of a pupil who died of heart failure after a swimming race have won a 10-year battle to make defibrillators mandatory in schools.
Mark and Joanne King’s 12-year-old son Oliver suffered a fatal cardiac arrest in 2011.
They have since campaigned for the devices to be provided in all schools to prevent other families suffering a similar tragedy.
And after the Government said yesterday the machines would be in every state school in England by July next year, Mark said: “We’ve fought with tenacity to make defibrillators mandatory.
“I’m therefore delighted that, after our decade-long fight, the Government has finally listened and schools will now be equipped with them.
“It will mean families up and down the country won’t ever have to go through the pain that we did when we lost our Ollie. If there had been a defibrillator on site, our son would be alive today.”