Cumbria Ambulance Service launches its National Defibrillator Programme on Wednesday as part of a campaign to reduce cardiac deaths.

Thirteen defibrillators will be kept at sites like sports and shopping centres, with staff shown how to use them.

The device gives a controlled electric shock to restore the heart to its normal rhythm.

Mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington will help launch the scheme which will see defibrillators in place at a swimming pool, shopping centre garden centre and railway station, among other places.

The launch follows an announcement made in October 2003 when the British Heart Foundation received �6m from the Big Lottery Fund to distribute 2,300 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) nationwide.