THE East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) is urging secondary schools to sign up to a lifesaving lesson this autumn.

Last year, more than 195,000 children and young people across the country learnt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Restart a Heart Day. And we are looking to do it all over again, except this year, it’s going global! For the first time, it will be called World Restart a Heart and it takes place on Tuesday, 16th October 2018.

Teachers are being urged to apply early, before the start of the school holidays, for EEAST staff and volunteers to teach lifesaving skills to students.

The annual event involves every ambulance service in the UK, the Resuscitation Council, the British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross and St John Ambulance.

About 30,000 people go into cardiac arrests outside of hospital in the UK every year. The chances of surviving a cardiac arrest drop 10 per cent a minute if CPR is not started, and survival rates are currently less than one in 10 people in this country.

Andrew Barlow, a Community Collaboration Manager at EEAST, said: “Every year we take part in the country’s biggest mass CPR training event and we’re very proud to be continuing to do our part as this event goes global. We want to visit as many schools as possible so that we can teach this important and life-saving skill to as many people as we can. It only takes a minute to fill out the application form to get involved, which helps to equip the next generation of lifesavers with vital CPR skills.”

To sign up to Restart a Heart Day, visit http://www.eastamb.nhs.uk/your-service/campaigns/restart-a-heart-school-sign-up.htm and complete the sign up form.