This is the scenario the Caltex Service Station manager at Hammond Avenue, Gunnar Nielsen, found himself in when his buying group New Sunrise donated an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

With viking blood running through his veins, Danish-born Mr Nielsen wants to spread the word that the AED at his site is for the use of the surrounding community and could potentially save a life.

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"New Sunrise managing director Steve Cardinale announced the complementary roll out of 400 AEDs at a conference I attended at Port Douglas where the yellow Wiggle Greg Page carried out a presentation as part of his Heart of the Nation initiative - we even got to dance with him to Hot Potato at the end," Mr Nielsen said.

"He made it very clear how important these things are and it's such a good thing we have a defibrillator as there are so many people around this area and we just need to let them know we have one.

"You hook it up and it decides whether the person needs CPR.

"You just stick two pads on the person who has collapsed and the defibrillator tells you if they need CPR and even talks you through it - the first thing you do is call the ambulance though obviously."

Mr Nielsen said no medical training was required to operate the AED successfully.

"When I saw how to use it, it gave me confidence that I could potentially save someone's life with it, it's so simple to use," he said.

"I've talked to people who have personal experience with heart problems and they all think it's a really great idea.

"It costs about $2000 and lasts for eight years, but what price do you put on someone's life?

"We talked about buying one before because of the amount of people we have around our site and thought there was a quite high possibility it could get used."

Mr Page survived a cardiac arrest during a performance with his original Wiggle members and then introduced the 'Heart of the Nation' initiative, aimed at raising community awareness of cardiac arrests and the location of AEDs across the country.

"We believe that our system of having a visual ID (Heart of the Nation sticker in the window) together with an app locator system (which will be released in coming weeks) will be of most benefit to people when they are trying to locate an AED," Mr Page said.

Mr Page said that having an AED within three minutes of someone who has collapsed could increase survival rates by 200 to 300 percent.

At least three AMPOL service stations in Wagga also have an AED on site.

Mr Page said there were five members of Heart of the Nation in Wagga, including In Motion Fitness at Glenfield Park, Kooringal Pharmacy, Coles Glenfield Park, Coles Wagga and Bunnings Warehouse.

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