How a near death experience led this iconic performer to a career of saving lives

The original yellow wiggle, Greg Page had a heart attack at a bushfire relief concert in Sydney in 2016.

He said he's "forever grateful" for the nurses and bystanders who saved his life that night.

"Not a day that goes by that I don't think about the people that saved my life," Mr Page said.

"There was a nurse, a GP and two other bystanders that have done their first aid training, but were not medically trained people.

"So, it doesn't take a nurse or a doctor to save a life. You don't need a piece of paper to save a life and that's why these sessions are so important."

Only five per cent of those who suffer Sudden Cardiac Arrest survive, so when Mr Page survived it himself he felt compelled to use his public platform to raise awareness on the medical emergency.

He has since founded Heart of the Nation, a charity committed to increasing Australia's cardiac arrest survival rates through education, access to AEDs and by empowering individuals to act in an emergency.

"It is incredibly important that the community gets involved in this because it really is down to bystanders to become responders when it comes to cardiac arrest," Mr Page said.

"That's how we're going to increase survival rates."

Thirty-six registered AEDs are currently in Orange, although some of those are located within private premises and not for public use.

Some of the publicly available AEDs are located at Lake Canobolas, Level 2 of the Summer Street shopping centre and outside the Member for Orange, Phil Donato's office in Lords Place, which he purchased this year.

Following the installation of the defibrillator, Mr Donato partnered with Mr Page to host a free AED Community Training event at the Ex-Services club on Friday.

"Suffering cardiac arrest is one of the biggest killers in Australia and I was happy to support by installing an AED in a central location," Mr Donato said.

"I really hope this is the start of a movement to really push more AEDs that are publicly available for people to use in our communities.

"Hopefully after this training today, other community groups and councils may get involved and look at rolling out more defibrillators across our local community. "

Mr Page told the Central Western Daily regional areas will benefit from these programs because, quite often, the services out here - like paramedics - are unavailable to respond in a quick enough time frame.

"They're time strapped; they are pushed to the limits and when it comes to cardiac arrest, the key to survival is bystanders forming that bridge," he said.

"From the moment somebody collapses to the moment paramedics arrive, having bystanders do something means that the paramedics have a greater chance of helping that patient survive."