Jamies Law - A visit to Westminster

I hold my hands up 🙌there is a lot of information and a lot of photos on this one, but, that is a huge positive. One of the main purposes of our visit to Westminster yesterday, was to meet with as many MP's as possible, to talk about Jamies Law!

It was such a successful, positive day! We arrived at Westminster at approx 9am and were taken to the room where our 'Jamies Law drop in session' was taking place. Thanks to Carolyn Harris MP, who organised this drop in with Naomi.

Always the anxious person on days like this, I wasn't expecting anyone to turn up, I was just hoping beyond hope, that the MP's would see Jamies story and understand why this campaign, to make it mandatory for all police vehicles to carry defibrillators, is so so vital!

At 10am (start of the drop in) we met our first MP, who happened to be Connor Naismith MP, who OurJays Xavana had already been in contact with in Crewe. Connor spent a lot of time with us and we were happy to talk about Jamies Law, but also more community accessible defibrillators for Crewe and Nantwich. We were visited by Carolyn Harris MP, to check how things were going and I also ran through all the stats about the Police Vehicle Defibrillators with her. She then went away to encourage more MP's to come along and chat to us.

We were then visited by Sharon Hodgson, MP for for Washington and Gateshead. Sharon is very well known to Sergio and Emma Red Sky Foundation, who we were so lucky to have alongside us for this event. Red Sky Foundation have been unbelievable in their support for Jamies Law and have recently funded full force defibrillator coverage for all Police response vehicles in Northumbria and Durham forces. They have been able to provide us with such valuable stats, that we could use for this drop in. We were also joined for the day by Inspector Richard O'Sullivan and Chief Inspector Louise Mclennan, from Northumbria Police, who were so passionate about sharing the stories on the Defibs in the police vehicles in Northumbria, which have already saved 9 lives in less than a year.

John Slinger MP for our own constituency, Rugby, joined us. He also ensured that a number of his colleagues came to speak with us and the morning became very busy very quickly! On a huge positive note, John Slinger has now confirmed that he will be applying for a slot to do a 10 Minute Rule Bill (I have done my research overnight last night and I now know that this means that a back bencher MP can make their case for a new Bill in a speech, lasting up to 10 minutes, to a well attended House of Commons). This would be, by far, the best opportunity to get the details of Jamies Law Bill heard and gauge further MP feedback and responses. I will be speaking a lot with John Slinger over the coming days to progress this as quickly as possible.

Many other MP's attended including, Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Caroline Nokes, Steve Darling MP and Jenny 🐾plus many others (tagged in first comment on this post), we were also visited by some MP's and guests that did not leave their details. As I said yesterday, every single response from the morning was 100% positive.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to the following people, without whom the drop in simply would not have happened, Jem, Xavana, Tracey from OurJays Team (and my rocks), Sergio and Emma Red Sky Foundation, Jo and Sam (PCSO's) and Inspector Ollie Scarisbrick from Warwickshire Police, Sergeant Kelly Webber from West Midlands Police, Mark from WEL Medical Limited, who provided invaluable information on costings etc for the defibrillators, Nic Old, Senior Paramedic, who acted as our clinical advisor throughout the event (he was fantastic).

I know we are 4 years on from the start of this campaign for Jamie and Jamies Law, but it really feels like yesterday was a big jump forward and OurJays whole team are overwhelmed and so grateful for the support behind this life saving initiative, which we all feel our followers, family and friends have shown us. We all know that we have a long way to go, but for the first time in almost 5 years, I can actually see some light towards change for my darling Jamie, for the public and for all Police Officers across the UK! 🇬🇧👮🏼‍♂️👮🏾💙