A PUB in Selkirk is set to have its very own life-saving shock treatment and a team of trained locals to use it.

An initiative by customer Fraser Bennett and manager Louise Stephen in the Town Arms Inn has seen hundreds of pounds raised to have an automated external defibrillator installed.

And now, with some help from locally-based charity Scottish HART, the machine has been ordered.

Wilma Gunn MBE from Scottish HART explained: "Just a few weeks ago the town’s Ex-Standard-Bearers’ Association had donated £400 to help us and on the same night local businessman Richard Young agreed to add another £200 to the total.

“I contacted the Ex-Standard-Bearers and also Richard Young who both agreed to using their donations to help the Towns Arms fund.”

Communities across Scotland have benefitted from the installation of defibrillators following campaigning, fundraising and awareness-raising by Scottish HART.

The AEDs deliver an electric shock to anyone who has gone into cardiac arrest.

Customers and management at the oldest pub in Selkirk expect to have their very own machine fitted within the next few weeks.

And the resuscitation department at Borders General Hospital has also been contacted to provide an evening's training for a few of the Towns Arms locals and staff.

Wilma added: “When I was a bit younger the pub was always referred to as The Doctor’s in honour of its long-serving owner Mitchell Rodger who always looked after his customers.

"It is very fitting that the latest defibrillator in Selkirk is to be in his surgery."