Lifesaving equipment that was supposed to be installed in Sainsbury’s in Ely as a tribute to a man who died in the store is now being installed at the Paradise Swimming Pool.

The store’s head office says it is because the supermarket does not have a national policy to install defibrillators inside their stores.

Seven months ago staff rallied to organise an in store collection to buy a defibrillator after 69 year old George Coulson died in the store following a cardiac arrest.

The equipment was bought in March thanks to £502-worth of shoppers’ donations towards the £540 price tag but the equipment was never installed.

The fund raising campaign was spearheaded by Tom Knights, an employee at the Lisle Lane store.

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said: “After helping to fund raise for Ely’s new defibrillator, the equipment was donated to the local community and is now being installed at the Paradise Swimming Pool.

“We regularly carry out thorough risk assessments factoring in expert medical advice and keep our policy under review, but at present we do not install defibrillators within our stores.

“All of our stores have CPR-trained first aiders on hand in case of an emergency.”

A spokesman for the Paradise said they were “pleased to be given the opportunity by Claire Dunham the new coordinator for Ely Community First Responders to house a public use defibrillator unit at the pool.

“Claire and I connected by Twitter and arranged for the unit to be secured to the outside of the building.

“The pool and the Newnham Street car park are busy thoroughfares, with the pool alone getting nearly 250,000 people through the doors per annum.

“The central location of the unit will provide many people with the best possible access for this potentially lifesaving piece of public use equipment.”