FUNDRAISERS have got right to the heart of the matter by buying a device with the pot-ential to save hundreds of lives.

A defibrillator, which can "jump-start" the heart after a coronary, has been bought jointly by the North Yorkshire Emergency Doctors (NYED) and Friends of York Hospitals.

Tomorrow, it will be presented to the HNS Walk-in Centre at Monkgate, York, in a bid to held reduce the number of deaths by heart attacks.

Doctors estimate that patients need defibrillation within ten minutes of collapsing if they are to survive.

Walk-in centre manager Liz Vickerstaff said: "This life-saving equipment may make the difference between life and death to patients using the centre and the NYED services."