West Country children get life-saving bleed kit training
An event has been held today at Ashton Gate Stadium
More than a hundred youngsters here in the West Country have been trained in life-saving skills - and have learnt how to use a bleed kit.
The kits have been rolled out right across the Avon and Somerset policing area, but it's thought not enough people know how to actually use one if somebody has been stabbed.
The actions of somebody who uses one could really make the difference between life and death in the first few minutes after someone is injured.
The region’s directly elected Mayor, Dan Norris, said he was responding to recent stabbings in the region by “giving young people the skills they need to save lives” in his patch.
The training has been run by anti-knife crime campaigner Leanne Reynolds from Bristol-based Safeguard Medical.
Youngsters at the Mayor's annual West of England Schools Summit have been learning how to use bleed kits, which contain everything needed to give first aid to someone who is losing blood.
Participants also learned about CPR and defibrillators during the “Save a Life” workshop.
Mayor Dan Norris said: “People across the West of England are rightly concerned about what appears to be a growing trend of knife crime. We all want the violence to stop. I truly hope no young person who is trained today ever has to use the skills they learn.
"But if we can empower local young people with the ability to save a life, then that’s the right thing to do.”
The Mayor added that he was working with anti-knife campaigners on introducing Bleed Kit training in more schools in the West of England, and had written to the Education Secretary after backing calls for such training to be compulsory in every school in the country.