80,000 take part in CPR training sessions with KSS

During one week in October over 80,000 people participated in CPR and defibrillation training sessions across the South East thanks to the series of livestream and in-person events held by Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) to support national Restart a Heart Day. This far exceeds last year's total of 17,000 people.

As part of the charity's biggest ever education and awareness campaign its expert air ambulance doctors and paramedics provided free online and in-person training sessions tailored to every age group from four years old to 80+. Those learning included thousands of school children, families, individuals, businesses, shoppers and holiday makers, equipping them all with the vital skills to help save the life of someone in cardiac arrest.

Across the South East an average of 24 people a day experience a cardiac arrest. Surprisingly 80% happen to people while they are at home, and so they are likely to be with a family member, friend, or someone they know well, at the time. Currently only 1 in 10 people survive but KSS wants to change that by training an army of lifesavers so that people can be a lifeline for a loved one when they need it the most.

Face-to-face sessions ran throughout the week at Gatwick Airport, Shepherd Neame pubs, Cobham Services on the M25, the Orchards Shopping Centre in Haywards Heath and Bluewater Shopping Centre, with further training available online.

KSS Paramedic and Education Manager, Ben Paul, said: "We have been blown away by the public response to this campaign. When we started planning to livestream the sessions last year, we thought we might reach a few hundred people, so to have got to the point where we can equip more than 80,000 people in one day with skills that could help them save a life is truly amazing. 

"Improving survival rates from cardiac arrest is a key aim for us at KSS but we can't do it alone. Family, friends, or even neighbours, are critically important in providing CPR in those first crucial moments after suffering a cardiac arrest and we have demonstrated anyone can learn these lifesaving skills. 

"Providing bystander CPR and using a defibrillator in the first few minutes is absolutely key and in combination with our medical teams advanced critical care interventions gives patients the very best chances of survival."

On Restart a Heart Day itself KSS crew visited Holcombe Grammar School in Chatham to lead a morning assembly for the sixth form and give face to face CPR and defibrillator training. The visit was covered by BBC, ITV and KMTV, generating coverage which helped make sure this vital campaign reached as many people as possible.

KSS crew members were interviewed, as well as former patient Graham Beswick, who received lifesaving bystander CPR after a cardiac arrest and KSS volunteer Steve Harley who saved his father Colin's life by giving him CPR when he collapsed with a cardiac arrest.

Giles Phillips, a teacher at Holcombe Grammar School, and former KSS patient, said: "The assembly certainly set the scene for why the work KSS does is so important and why knowledge of effective CPR is such an important life skill. The practical session on CPR and the use of a defibrillator has certainly got the students talking!"

The campaign was supported by Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, with KSS doctors and paramedics helping to train, men's and women's first team players as well as members of the under 21 squad, along with the club's celebrity Ambassador Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim). The club also devoted its social media to Restart a Heart for the day. On Restart a Heart Day there were special livestream sessions for Girl guides. KSS recently launched inspiring new Girlguiding London and South East England Challenge Badge, the Air Ambulance KSS Mission Badge.