HUNDREDS of children around Westbury learned how to save a life last month as part of the international ‘Restart a Heart’ day.
398 local primary school pupils joined over 100,000 others across the UK and Australia as they learned CPR as part of an attempt to set a world record for the most children to be taught in one day.
Staff from Westbury Swimming Pool and Leighton Recreation Centre visited Bitham Brook, Bratton, Dilton Marsh and Westbury Junior schools and taught pupils the fundamentals of how to help restart the heart of someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest.
Managers of the pool and leisure centre, Keith Brunsden and Colin Larrigan said, “Thank you to all the staff and pupils at the schools that took part. The children were all enthusiastic and loved getting involved. They asked some very interesting and sometimes amusing questions, and some children even brought their teddy bears to practise on!”
Colin was joined by colleague Jim Kettlety and swimming pool employee Anne Egerton, to give the training at schools throughout the day.
The initiative took place as part of the European Restart a Heart Day and was part of a world record attempt supported by The British Heart Foundation, St John Ambulance, and The British Red Cross along with all regional Ambulance Services.
The aim was to train more than 100,000 young people how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on that day.
Currently in the UK, less than one in ten people (8.6%) survive a cardiac arrest. If we achieved the same survival rates (25%) as found in parts of Norway where CPR is demonstrated in schools, an additional 100 lives could be saved each week – the equivalent of approximately 5,000 every year.
