The former Australian Ironman champion started Heart180 in 2016, after the death of a friend from sudden cardiac arrest.

When pharmacy owner Tim Murray heard about Mr Leech's quest, he decided the team could help by organising a Heart180 defibrillator to be located in the pharmacy, which is centrally located and open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

With 65 percent of regional Australians (and 95 percent in metropolitan areas) living within 2.5 kilometres of their local pharmacy, Mr Murray said there is a "tremendous opportunity" for every community pharmacy to be part of the solution to Australia's biggest out-of-hospital killer: sudden cardiac arrest.

He said having a defibrillator available within his pharmacy to support the local community if needed was an easy decision to make.

"Pharmacists and many of the team have first aid and CPR certification as part of their professional practice requirements, which adds an extra avenue of support in our clinical environment," Mr Murray added.

Now that the defibrillator has been installed at the pharmacy, Mr Murray and the team will undergo further training in how to use it via the Heart180 portal.

Mr Leech founded Heart180 after his friend collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest and died later that week, even though Mr Leech performed initial CPR and emergency services attended.

"Defibrillation is essentially the core factor that determines if a person in cardiac arrest will survive," Mr Leech said.

"Statistics show that if you are able to get the defib on a victim within the first three minutes it'll shock their survival rate to above 90 percent and with an average ambulance response time of 12 minutes, you must act fast.

"In Australia, more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur each year and with fewer than 10 per cent currently surviving, public access to defibrillation can quite literally mean the difference between life and death.

"In Australia there are approximately 100,000 defibs, which based on the geographical size of Australia means that there is currently insufficient coverage of these life-saving devices."

To find out more about how you can become part of the Heart180 Army or arrange a presentation for your business, contact Tim at the Cessnock Day Night Pharmacy on 4990 4385 or visit heart180.com.au.