Thousands of children learn CPR in Yorkshire

More than 11,800 schoolchildren across Yorkshire have learnt life-saving skills in the biggest event of its kind in the UK.

On 16 October, Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) staff and British Heart Foundation (BHF) volunteers visited 51 secondary schools to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training as part of European Restart a Heart Day.

The event marks the launch of the BHF’s new quicker and simpler CPR training programme that could lead to thousands more children learning CPR in Yorkshire and across the country.

The new BHF kits will be used to train children on the day and will leave a legacy at schools across Yorkshire so they can continue to train pupils in the future. The charity’s ambition is to create a ‘Nation of Lifesavers’ in which all children leave school with the skills needed to help save a life.

Organiser Jason Carlyon, clinical development manager for YAS, said: ‘Over 30,000 people suffer cardiac arrests outside of hospital in the UK every year. If this happens in front of a bystander who starts CPR immediately before the arrival of the ambulance, the patient’s chances of survival double.

‘By teaming up with the British Heart Foundation’s Nation of Lifesavers campaign and linking with the European Resuscitation Council’s European Restart a Heart Day we will provide thousands of schoolchildren with the skills needed to help save a life.’

Taken from Journal of Paramedic Practice, published 20 October 2014.