A DEFIBRILLATOR will be installed at a bowling club after a charity stepped in to donate the machine.

The Al-Khair Foundation, the third largest Muslim charity in the UK, paid for the device after the Over Hulton Bowling Club contacted Bolton South East Labour Parliamentary candidate Yasmin Qureshi to help raise money. The device will be kept at the bowling green, which hosts over-60s matches.

Peter Govan, from Over Hulton Bowling Club, said: “We felt we needed a defibrillator because we are all over 60 and during my years bowling I have witnessed the deaths of two people from heart failure. I’ve also been told that one person was saved because they had a defibrillator at the bowling green. The ambulance crew confirmed that his life had been saved because of the defibrillator.”

The Over Hulton club’s over-60s team plays in the Farnworth and District Parks Veterans Bowling Association, which stages games in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Imran Musa, the foundation’s national manager, said: “Charity starts at home and hopefully the defibrillator will never have to be used but if this machine saves a life then there is nothing more we can ask for.”