2015 has got off to a really busy start, so I'll start by wishing you a rather belated Happy New Year!
I had a call from Radio Aire at the end of December, so started with being interviewed on radio bulletins the first week in January which in turn led to my being interviewed by the news team from Made In Leeds TV channel - see below for details.  Training courses have been busy and we're still on the hunt for a part-time office administrator - so if you know of anyone who might be interested, please let them know! I hope that 2015 is being good to you.

Best wishes,
               Helen

Teaching CPR in Schools to Children - what do you think?!

     How young is too young?

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is calling for every child in Leeds to learn CPR reports Radio Aire's news-feed - for full article click here. Research by the BHF reveals 80% of people support the idea. When heading up this story I was interviewed by Radio Aire's Rosanna Austin (see left) and sworn to secrecy until the broadcasts went live on 6th January! I regularly teach CPR to a youth group of 13-19 year-olds, and some of the smaller sized ones do struggle to be effective with chest compressions; make no mistake, if you need to use this skill for real it is hard work and you will need to be able to go for a lot longer than you have ever done on a training manikin in a course! I've also taught a first aid badge to a friends' Brownie group - and we had children as young as 5 years-old roll over an adult to maintain an airway, so it is amazing what a young child can manage.

On 17th February just this week, an 11-year old boy saved his Dad's life by doing CPR - see this report from the ITV news-page - absolutely fabulous!!!

What do you think? How young is too young to learn CPR? Should we be teaching First Aid to children in schools?

The Chokeables

The Chokeables is a short 40 second video with well known celebrities taking on the voices of animated objects which are common choking hazards to small children - pen lid, princess and jelly baby. When quizzed by St John's Ambulance scarily over 40% of parents had witnessed their child choke and not known how to help. Check out this video and share it with friends, work colleagues and family!

If you know of anyone who would like to learn how to deal with a choking child and other common first aid issues such as bumped heads, high temperatures and burns/scalds, do let them know about our First Aid for Parents courses - usually run for groups, due to enquiries an Open course is being held at our Headingley Training premises on Monday 30 March 2015 from 10am - 12.30pm This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Useful Links: 

We're regularly getting asked for links to things on training courses, so will build up here a resource for anyone who has trained with us!

Medical Conditions at Schools website: www.medicalconditionsatschool.org.uk 

The SMS Emergency calls - or text 999 - must be registered for before use and you can do so here.

BCU coaches - for an update on first aid requirements for coaches click here. 

L24 - Workplace health, safety and welfare: ACOP and guidance (revised)