This October, aligning with Restart a Heart Day and Shocktober, St John Ambulance Victoria is proud to launch a bold new campaign, created and developed in collaboration with creative agency, Town Square, which brings a fresh lens to a persistent problem: too many Victorians still lack access to life-saving defibrillators.

Our campaign asks a deceptively simple but powerful question: “Do you live with a paramedic?”

Because unless you do, your best chance of survival in a sudden cardiac arrest is having an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) close at hand and knowing how to use it.

New Campaign, Built on Familiar Ground

If you recall our “If It Happens at Home” initiative, you will know we lean into immersive, people-centred storytelling to break through complacency and fear.

With Do You Live with a Paramedic?, we have brought that storytelling back into the home, but this time, with a twist. Through sitcom-style scenarios, we show a friendly but ever-present paramedic awkwardly “third-wheeling” in everyday moments, from breakfast at the kitchen table to family movie night.

The humour makes it relatable, but the message is serious: unless you actually live with a paramedic, you may be on your own in those critical first few minutes of a cardiac arrest. And because cardiac arrest can strike anyone, anywhere, at any time, the key is to have the right tools and confidence to act, both at home and beyond it.

This campaign is bold, playful, and deliberately provocative, yet at its heart, it carries the same mission that drives every St John initiative: empowering Victorians to save lives.

For Businesses, Communities, and Every Victorian

One of the keys to shifting norms is to bring this conversation into workplaces, schools, community centres, and institutions. Every venue should think:

• Do we have a defibrillator?
• Are staff trained in CPR and AED use?
• Do people know where the AED is located and how to access it?

“When a cardiac arrest occurs, you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall back on your training,” Mr Botwright says.
“By partnering with workplaces and public institutions, we’re not just pushing devices, we’re building a culture of readiness, trust, and confidence.”

This campaign is not just about awareness, it’s about accountability. It’s about saying: we must expect more of our public spaces. We must demand more from our infrastructure. We can’t leave survival to chance.

What You Can Do

• Experience the campaign — watch our light-hearted ads on our social channels, reflect on how close cardiac emergencies are to everyday life, and share it with others.
• Purchase a defib — if you don’t have one yet, St John has a range of defibrillators available that will get you ready to save a life should the worst happen.
• Get your defib checked — if you already have one at home or at work, don’t forget to check if regularly. You much check the status ready indicator; if the light is red and not green, as it should, something must be wrong. Check for the battery and pads expiry date too, and remember: each time after using your defibrillator, you need to replace the pads with a new set and check the battery.
• Get your defib serviced — if your defibrillator needs battery and pads replacement, St John First Aid Kit Servicing team can help you with that, and if you are a business owner, the team can come to you.
• Advocate — write to your local MP or council and call for AEDs in public buildings, with training and signage.
• Enter our Shocktober competition — and maybe win a defibrillator for your workplace or community. (Yes, we’re giving away a St John G5 and a St John X3.)

At St John Ambulance Victoria, our mission has always been more lives saved. This campaign is one more way we intend to make that mission real, by transforming passive awareness into active readiness.

 For some important information and resources, please click on the links below:

• How to choose the right defibrillator for you: how-to-choose-the-right-defib-checklist.pdf
• Finding the right place for your defibrillator: how-to-choose-the-right-defib-location-checklist-v3-final.pdf
• How to maintain your defibrillator: how-to-maintain-defib-checklist-v5.pdf
• St John defibrillator range: Defibrillators - St John Ambulance Australia (VIC) INC - Saving Lives Through First Aid