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She’s a part-time custodian at the Georgina Civic Centre, but co-workers and residents in this town on the south-eastern shores of Lake Simcoe have started using words like “hero” and “lifesaver” to describe Sandra Houghton.

Houghton, a member of CUPE 905, was working her usual night shift on Monday, November 16 when the town’s deputy clerk rushed out of a meeting to ask if she knew how to use the defibrillator, or AED, located on site.

Houghton, who had been trained to use the device just over a year ago, opened the AED case and got to work.  By the time York Region paramedics arrived, she had revived the man in distress – and saved his life.

“I want to let everybody know, to tell employers, that it is so important to get this training and to have the AED in the workplace or other public sites,” Houghton says.  “It would make the world a better place.”