A HEALTH worker has produced a glossy calendar to ensure a lifesaving public defibrillator targeted by vandals last year is replaced.

Maria Munn, a care worker from Swanage who works across Dorset, has already raised more than £450 to cover the costs of replacing the smashed defibrillator casing at Wareham Quay.

Vandals targeted the public defibrillator - which was sponsored by Perenco Wytch Farm and the British Heart Foundation - at the quay in October last year.

Since then a defibrillator has been available at the nearby Quay Inn, but this is not accessible 24 hours a day as before.

Maria hopes the money raised for a new, tougher casing will lead to the return of the medical device to its previous position.

She told the Daily Echo: "After hearing it had been broken I wanted to do something to help.

"I've been run over twice and my legs are pretty much held together with metal, so a marathon was out of the question.

"So I decided to raise funds through my photography."

Maria, also a keen photographer, has run a series of 'Winter Wonderland' photography shoots from her Wareham studio, and has produced an A3 calendar called 'Wareham Wonders' which is full of images and views in and around Wareham.

She said: "I cover staff shortages across all of Dorset in hospitals and care homes, so I've often seen how quickly a person's health can change. Minutes can make a huge difference and the defibrillator should, ideally, be accessible all of the time."

After the casing was damaged, last year, a spokesperson for Purbeck Police said: "The casing to a public access defibrillator has been damaged beyond repair.

"This has now resulted in the device having to be removed and is now no longer accessible to the public. This could potentially put lives at risk."

The Echo understands talks on possibly moving the defibrillator back to a public position are set to take place

The calendar, costing £10, can be purchased online thevisionstudio.co.uk or at Farrells Newsagents, High Street, Wareham, or at The Quay Inn.