Call For Classroom Lifesaving Lessons

There are calls today for every child in Leeds to learn CPR at school - as new research reveals 80 percent of people here support the idea. The British Heart Foundation wants lifesaving lessons on classroom curiculums and says that in Norway 25 percent of people having a heart attack survive it. Here in the UK that figure is fewer than one in ten. To improve survival rates, the charity is calling on people in Yorkshire and the Humber to visit their local BHF shop to sign a petition urging the Government to ensure all children are taught the life-saving skill.

Linda Puchala, the charity's regional manager, said: "Lives are lost every day because people do not have the skills to act in a life-threatening situation.

"We believe that every child should leave school knowing how to perform CPR. That’s why we need people to go into their local shop, sign the petition, and help create a nation of lifesavers.

"Children learn many lessons in school but what is more important than knowing how to save a life?"

Local first aid trainer Helen Underwood, who runs courses for children in adults in Leeds, agrees that it's vital: "It's a really vaulable life skill just to have the knowledge that if you do need those skills you have got a clue what to do. "I've met eight people over the last three years who've had to do CPR on their child. All eight of them got their child awake and breathing. So if you've got the skills it can make a massive difference." But Helen says there's even more basic first aid skills that are not being passed on.

"Really simple stuff like how to deal with a cut or a burn could be introduced at primary school, progressing up to CPR in secondary school," she says.

"I've been into a primary school locally. They had a young child who's mum was a diabetic. He managed to call an ambulance when mum was unresponsive. So how to recognise they need an ambulance, and how to call for one."