Ironman great Guy Leech is on a mission to install defibrillators

Mr Leech has been on a mission since that day, determined to give Australians greater access to defibrillators to ensure no one else has to endure the same fate like his friend, who suffered a heart attack and then waited 12 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

"This partnership will save thousands of lives over time," Mr Leech said at a Chisholm pharmacy on Monday.

Mr Leech, the founder of national defibrillator company Heart180, was in Canberra for what he hoped was the beginning of a national pharmacy rollout.

His mission is simple: to give a defibrillator within 180 seconds of every Australian by the year 2025.

One was installed at Chisholm last week as part of a partnership with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

Pharmacy guild national manager Tiffany King expects that with the guild's resources and connections to pharmacies, Mr Leech's goal is now within sight.

"Pharmacies are the most accessible healthcare providers in the country so it makes sense getting [a defibrillator] into every pharmacy" she said.

Heart rhythm problems are among the leading causes of death across Australia. Being the only means to restart the heart, experts have historically scratched their heads at the fact that defibrillators remain so largely inaccessible.

In Australia, you only have a 6 per cent chance of surviving a heart attack when outside of hospital. This is staggeringly low when you compare it to a place like Seattle, where the likelihood of survival rises to 70 per cent.

"That's because [in Seattle] people treat defibrillators a bit like we treat fire hydrants or fire alarms in our homes - it's a part of something that you have nearby," Ms King explained. "We've got a bit to do to catch up."

This partnership is already at work, having installed a defibrillator at Capital Chemist Chisholm. Owner Rebecca Young said this was a big win given what the year ahead looked like for community pharmacies.

"With the proposed administration of COVID vaccinations by local pharmacists, we expect to service our local community a lot more this year and this [instalment] is an important part of improving the scope of our practices," she said.

Mrs Young said the machine would have helped out eight years ago when a customer came in complaining of reflux and ended up having a heart attack inside the pharmacy.

Luckily, the ambulance was in close enough proximity for him to survive but Mrs Young explained that given how critical timing was for heart issues, her team could have responded much more effectively.

With help from both Heart180 and the Guild, Mrs Young feels a lot more confident that local pharmacies will be able to make sure people aren't dying from a reason, like timing, which can and should be solved.

"Right from the beginning I knew that to save the most lives, the most sense was to get the defibs into the pharmacy." Mr Leech agreed.

"Maybe we will now even reach our goal before 2025."

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