A potentially life-saving machine has been installed in one of Clifton village’s busiest streets in memory of a popular and talented rugby player.
Sam Polledri who was 24 years old died after a cardiac arrest while he was on a night out with friends in the centre of Bristol in 2022.
Although the emergency services and the Great Western Air Ambulance charity (GWAAC) attended they were unable to save Sam.
His family, girlfriend, and family friends set up the Sam Polledri Foundation with GWAAC. The aim of the foundation is to raise funds to buy defibrillators and install them.
Their latest defibrillator has been fixed to the wall between between Clifton Village Fish Bar and Chandos Deli in Princess Victoria Street.
Marco Maestri, who runs the Fish Bar, said: “This honours Sam’s memory in a truly meaningful and moving way.
“We thought that with the success of the semi-pedestrian area on Princess Victoria Street that there should be a defibrillator which is unlocked giving access twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
He said that many defibrillators are locked away in buildings and not available to the public.
The ongoing maintenance of the machine will be covered by Clifton Village Fish Bar.
Sam’s mother Louise said: “I wish there had been a public access defibrillator available for my beautiful boy but knowing we have made a difference because of Sam’s passing, and that other families may have been saved from our living nightmare is huge, This makes all we have done worthwhile”.
Sam Polledri had played for various rugby clubs including Clifton, Dings and St Mary’s.
Claire Harris of GWAAC said it was their goal that no one should be more than five minutes’ walk away from a defibrillator.