RPS is supporting the British Heart Foundation's Heartstart initiative

Posted: 26/07/2015

26 July 2015 RPS Partnership

RPS is supporting the campagin to get more of the public to do CPR, so they know what to do if someone is having a heart attack or suffers a cardiac arrest. RPS was at the Penrith Show this weekend raising awareness with members of the Ambulance Service, Cumbrian Fire and Rescue Service and the Community First Responders groups.

Heartstart is a British Heart Foundation initiative to teach you CPR and other emergency life saving skills. The courses are free to attend and held all over the country. There are over 3,800 Heartstart schemes across the UK supported by the BHF.

A Heartstart course lasts around two hours. On the course you'll learn about:

  • dealing with an unconscious person
  • the signs and symptoms of a heart attack
  • recognising a cardiac arrest and performing CPR
  • dealing with choking
  • dealing with serious bleeding.

You can attend a course as an individual or group. Contact your nearest Heartstart course to book your place. RPS directors are now Heartstart instructors and supporting this scheme in Cumbria. RPS also runs first aid at work courses and can organise these at your place of work.

Heartstart was set up in 1996. To date over 3.5 million people have attended a Heartstart course.

Vinnie Jones fronts the Hands-only CPR campaign and below is what he says about it. 

In 2012 something pretty major happened in my life. I became a lifesaver. Not literally I’ll admit but by within weeks of appearing as the face of the British Heart Foundation’s new Hands-only CPR advert I heard through the grapevine that people were remembering the ad and going on to save a life.

It’s a strange feeling knowing I have helped to make such a difference. It gets even more strange when you realise it’s not just one life; when you realise at least 28 people from around the UK were pulled back from the brink because some brave man or woman had seen the advert, read the newspaper or laughed at the training film.

I’ve worked on film sets and football pitches since I was a youngster and I love that buzz you get knowing you’re part of the next box office smash or you’ve helped your club into the history books. But when I turned up to that disused warehouse in London’s Neasden at the end of last year to film the Hands-only CPR ad, I could tell I was part of something very different. But perhaps just as exciting.

So when the BHF said they wanted to bring back Hands-only CPR for a second time I jumped at the chance. We were in different warehouse (this time in London Bridge), with a different film crew and a different (younger and shorter) supporting cast, but I felt the same sense of excitement this time too.

Meeting Hands-only heroes

Best of all, filming the new ad and training film brought me face-to-face with survivors and rescuers alike. Their stories are incredible. I met people like Alan Linton, who collapsed in cardiac arrest on a golf course. His mates knew what to do because they had seen the advert. In fact, listening back to the 999 recording you can clearly hear them say that they’re “doing the Stayin’ Alive thing”. You’ll spot Alan at the end of the new advert.

And I also met some real talent of the future. Brenock O’Connor did a great job filling my shoes as Mini Vinnie and I hope he helps to bring the hard and fast message to the next generation of potential life-savers. In fact, he probably did a better job than me!

It’s been a privilege to be involved in such an important campaign and I hope it inspires lots more Brits to call 999 and then push hard and fast in the centre of the chest to the beat of Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees when some has a cardiac arrest.

I may have had plenty of practice this year but Hands-only CPR really is a simple thing. A simple thing that has saved lives and will continue to do so.

Vinnie made a video for kids and you can view it here https://youtu.be/Ff_kalDZfzU

Contact https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/nation-of-lifesavers/heartstart for information on where the courses are being run.

Contact [email protected] for First aid courses for work or travel overseas to hostile environments.

Photo: RPS Director, Caroline Neil, supports North West Ambulance Service at the Penrith Show. Getting the pulbic to do CPR. Members of the public try out CPR on a dummy with a Community First Responder.

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