It was a coffee morning with a heart. The event at Little Easton Memorial Hall raised £1,000 to buy a defibrillator and now the machine is on order.

The village is now just £293 short of the price of the machine designed to save lives after a heart attack.

A demonstration on how to use the defibrillator was given by Martin Render, chairman of the Community Heartbeat Trust, a charity which helps villages get the life-saving machines and supplies them.

Jayne Paul who is organising Little Easton’s defibrillator campaign said: “People think you need training to use them but you don’t and they really do save lives. As soon as you open it, it starts talking to you and gives you step by step instructions. They are very simple to use. As a friend of mine in the fire service says: ‘they are idiot proof.’”

She added: “In a few years’ time, I think there will be regulations that all public buildings need to have a defibrillator just as now they must have a fire extinguisher.” The morning included a cake stall, a raffle and an auction for a football shirt and boots. The shirt, signed by the Arsenal team, made £400 and the boots, worn by the Gunners’ midfielder, Aaron Ramsey, raised £130.

After the event, the money was boosted with a £700 donation from Dunmow Rotary Club.

Mrs Paul said: “Defibrillators cost about £2,000 and we are now so close to the target that we have ordered a defibrillator from the Community Heartbeat Trust. It will have to be installed (at The Stagg pub) and we have to register it with the Ambulance Service. I would like to thank everyone who raised this money, the people who made cakes and gave raffle prizes and those who stepped in to run the stalls and wash up. Ironically, it is something we hope that we will never have to use.”