'Generation of lifesavers' to be created in Essex

Every Year 10 pupil across Essex will be taught life saving CPR skills thanks to a new charity funded initiative.

Heartwize Essex aims to create a 'generation of lifesavers', by going into all of the county's 122 secondary schools and providing lessons on how to help when someone has a cardiac arrest.

The project, which will run for two years, hopes to educate teachers training at the Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, so that schools can begin to pass down the skills to all pupils.

Funded by charity SADS UK (Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome) and run by the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre, the Heartwize project will also teach students how to use a defibrillator.

The students will also be taught how to use a defibrillator Credit: ITV Anglia

Dr Thomas Keeble, a Cardiologist at the centre, said: "If you look in the UK currently of everyone who has a cardiac arrest out of hospital, only around 50% will have attempted CPR and AED, so when the paramedics come along nothing really has been done 50% of the time.

"We know that is just terrible for outcomes. People just die, of brain injury, heart injury.

"We know that by doing CPR, seeking early help and by delivering shocks with an AED, an automated defibrillator we can increase that considerably, tenfold if you do it quickly and early.

"So we're trying to create a generation of young people who know what to do and are confident doing it."

  • 30,000 people in the UK have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital every year.

  • Their chances of surviving drop 10 percent a minute if CPR is not started

  • Currently less than 1 in 10 survive.

Meanwhile, 50 secondary schools in the East of England are taking part in the country's biggest mass CPR training event on Wednesday 16 October to mark 'Restart a Heart Day'.

Staff and volunteers from the East of England Ambulance Trust will teach thousands of young people how to perform chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Football manager Justin Edinburgh, from Essex, died in hospital earlier this year, days after suffering a cardiac arrest.

His son Charlie is backing the campaign.

  • Learning CPR: Becky Jago and Jonathan Wills find out how to save a life.Watch