Isle of Wight Ambulance Service is partnering with fire stations across the Isle of Wight to teach over 900 students how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator as part of Restart a Heart Day 2025 today (Thursday).
The training will take place today and will involve pupils from more than 25 schools across the Island. Now in its ninth year, the free training programme aims to increase the number of people who know how to respond when someone suffers a cardiac arrest.
Eight out of ten cardiac arrests happen at home. By starting CPR while waiting for emergency services, a person’s chances of survival increase significantly. With more community defibrillators now available, knowing how to use them alongside CPR is vital.
Louise Walker, Head of Education and Community Response at IWAS, has said:
“For many people it is about not just giving them the skills to carry out CPR but the confidence to do it. Every second is vital when someone has a cardiac arrest.
“We want to give people the best chance of survival and while we hope no one is ever in a situation they need to use these skills, knowing what to do is an incredibly powerful feeling.”
Earlier this year, Isle of Wight Ambulance Service joined with South Central Ambulance Service to launch the GoodSAM app, which helps 999 call handlers alert clinically trained responders nearby to cardiac arrest situations.
Anyone who is a qualified first aider or who has completed Resuscitation Council UK Lifesaver online training can register as a GoodSAM Cardiac Responder.
The importance of CPR was highlighted by Gwen, whose husband survived a cardiac arrest at home on Valentine’s Day two years ago. Gwen is now part of the Life After Cardiac Arrest support group.
She said:
“Although I didn’t believe it at the time, my role in carrying out CPR on my husband at the bottom of our stairs, was as vital as all the professional support that followed in his Chain of Survival.
“He’s now living life much as he did prior to that night, yet without CPR in the first few minutes of his cardiac arrest, things might have been very different.”
Restart a Heart Day is an annual initiative supported by ambulance services across the UK, aimed at creating the next generation of confident life-savers.
