Did you know there are 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests attended to by
medical professionals every year? In the UK, only 40% of those people will
have received bystander CPR. Only 1 in 10 will survive. SHOCKING!
When a person goes into cardiac arrest, bystander CPR can double a person’s
chances of survival and, if they are given defibrillation within 3-5 minutes,
survival rates can increase to 50-70%. Their survival can literally depend on
those around them.
That’s why Magpas Air Ambulance offers Community CPR sessions. And
that’s why the Wrestlingworth Goodwill Fund organised three training
sessions for local villagers. The course taught us to recognise IF a person
needed CPR or not, how to do CPR and how to use a defibrillator machine.
We were also told about the importance of ‘what 3 words’ as the emergency
services do use this as a location finder, especially in rural communities. You
can download the app for your phone here: what3words.com
I have been a first aider for over 30 years, and on 11th May 2023, for the first
time ever, I had to use those skills for real. Despite not being the first person
at the scene of an accident, no one else there was willing or able, or had the
skills to give CPR. So I am passionate about more people learning these
potentially life saving skills.
If the thought of giving others the kiss of life, or mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation, is putting you off learning CPR, then the great news is that you
now no longer have to do that! So don’t delay, learn CPR today
If you want to organise training for your own community club, here is the
link for Magpas:
https://magpas.org.uk/about-us/our-training/cpr-training/
If community training is not for you, you can still learn CPR in your own
home!
The British Heart Foundation offer a free course here:
https://revivr.bhf.org.uk/

RevivR is the 15-minute mobile training that shows you when and how to do
CPR to save someone’s life. All you need to practise is a cushion.
Scarily, your village or club may have purchased a defibrillator BUT, it
needs to be registered to be of any use! If you know of a defibrillator
machine near you, please check it here to make sure it is actually registered

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on ‘The circuit’ or 999 control will not be
able to direct you to it, so in effect, it’s a
useless bit of very expensive kit. Please ask
the guardian of the machine, to follow the
links at this site to register the machine. Very
easy and quick to do.
https://www.defibfinder.uk/
If you wanted your own machine for your
club or village, we have now done lots of
research into funding of these, etc. We’re not
experts but can certainly help point you in the
right direction, so please don’t hesitate to get
in touch.
Lastly, we just wanted to say thank you to all
the amazing people that attended these events
and learnt these valuable skills. We think you
are awesome!
We also want to say thank you to Magpas too
for bringing us these skills. They are a charity
and have to fund raise every year to provide a
helicopter and give Community CPR
Training.
Thanks too go to the amazing committees that
allowed us to host these events: Eyeworth
Village Hall, St John’s Church, Cockayne
Hatley and Wrestlingworth Memorial Hall.
We are grateful that we still have these
amazing places in our villages.
We intend to try and organise another session
later in the year, so if you missed out, please
feel free to let us know that you’d like to
attend a session.
Kind regards and thanks so much.

Wendy Baker