Lifesaving training comes to West Leeds with Restart a Heart Day

By Iola Shaw

Are you ResusReady? This means do you know how to do CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and would you be willing to give it a go, or support someone else to do it if you had to? 

This is what Restart a Heart Day – on Thursday, 16 October – is all about. Since 2014 in the UK, when the Yorkshire Ambulance Service led the way with CPR training in schools, it has been held every year around this date.

And though it started with school-based training, these days there are more and more opportunities to learn or refresh your skills as an adult too.  

Many schools in the area will be running courses and Yorkshire Ambulance service will be going to 180 schools regionally.

There are also drop in sessions at many of the Active Leeds centres, including Armley, Kirkstall and Pudsey leisure centres in West Leeds – find out more from leeds.lifsaving@leeds.gov.uk. 

These focus on demos with no appointment required and are run by the Royal Lifesaving Society. For details of all events, go to https://www.rlss.org.uk/restart-a-heart-activities-near-you.

Surviving a Cardiac Arrest is all about the speed of treatment, so knowing these basic skills is a way we can all potentially make a difference to someone.

If you have a cardiac arrest out of hospital, and 80% of these are in people’s own homes, then on average you have a less than one in 10 chance of surviving for more than 30 days. 

However if someone starts CPR immediately this can more than double your chances. As heart disease is one of the biggest causes of death it’s worthwhile making sure you and those you spend most time with have these skills. 

CPR training is often partnered with an overview of using a Defibrillator. The modern ones you see in cabinets on many buildings do not require any training to use as you open the case and follow the audio instructions. 

However the idea of giving someone an electric shock is a bit alarming so usually CPR training includes using one of these too. If you ring 999 you will be told where the nearest registered publicly accessible cabinet is, and if a pin code is required they will be able to give you this information. 

If you are looking for the best track for CPR, check out the St John’s Ambulance Restart a Heart Day 2023 Spotify playlist. But make sure you back this up with the knowledge to use it. It’s not just for teenagers – you are never too old to learn and if it’s been a while a quick refresher might be wise.

There are many reputable sources of training;  not only the YAS online materials but you can look at the Resus council and becoming ResusReady or the British Heart Foundation with their 15 minute online training RevivR. 

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