Andrew's Legacy Lives On

Saturday, 21 November 2015 10:38

The family of 15 year old Andrew Stoddart are keeping his memory alive

OXFORD COUNTY - Andrew's Legacy is gaining traction just 4 months after the 15 year old teenager passed away.

Thanks in part to his family's commitment, they have made it their mission to place an AED at every playing field in the area and then branching out into the province. Andrew died will playing soccer in May and his Uncle, Ron Funnell, explains the type of person his nephew was. "Andrew was a very athletic young teenager, at the age of 15 Andrew was a star track and field performer and no history of having any health concerns. There was not an AED unit on site at the Kintore Optimist Park.

Since Andrew's passing the very first donation of an AED unit was to put on at the Kintore Soccer Park." Funnell is optimistic this will one day become mandatory to have AED's present at all sporting facilities and so regualtions will be similar to those put into place in California and Quebec.

Funnell cannot thank the community enough for their support through this difficult time. "Our family came together very quickly to try to prevent this for any family in the future. There seems to be an alarming rate of young athletes that are having problems out on the field, or on the rink, and these units need to be out there. In the course of the last several months the community outpouring of support has been significant."

Over the past 4 months financial donations have flooded in including one recently in the amount of $10,000 that will allow Andrew's Legacy to place AED units at several places around the county. Funnell spoke to Heart FM about the life saving AED units and their importance at various sporting fields. "There is a bit of a stereotype, a bit of a stigma, that the AED units are difficult to use, in reality they are not difficult to use. We will continue until such time as we can look across the board and identify that AED units are in absolutely every public place."