Souness part of campaign to get more people learning CPR
The aim is to recruit 270,000 more people to learn CPR within the next 12 months
Liverpool legend Graeme Souness is joining other footballers, past and present, to try and get 270,000 more people learning CPR in the next 12 months!
23 million adults have never learned it, according to the British Heart Foundation - prompting a campaign called 'Every Minute Matters'.
It aims to highlight that with every minute that passes during a cardiac arrest, the chance of survival falls by 10%.
The 'Re-Start 11' squad, made up of current and former footballers such as Graeme Souness, Fabrice Muamba, David Ginola and Charlie Wyke, have been formed to try and recruit thousands more people to learn CPR.
Graeme was diagnosed with coronary heart disease in his early 30s and went on to have a triple bypass.
He said:
"The more people that learn to do this, the better because these things happen.
"In the UK, someone has a cardiac arrest every five minutes. There's 30,000 a year and one in ten survive if the attack happens outside of hospitals, so it's a desperate situation.
"The more people that learn to do this, we'll be saving lots of lives.
"Glenn Hoddle, David Ginola, Fabrice Muamba - these are people who've had cardiac arrests. They would not be here today if they hadn't been lucky enough to have been where it happened and people knew how to do CPR.
"The more people that learn how to do this, then the world would be a better place.
"It's a skill you'll never forget"
"I think the majority of people think this only happens to old people. It could happen to your child, for whatever reason.
"It could happen to your next-door neighbour's child, it's not just old people who get this.
"The sooner you learn this, it's a skill you'll never forget. It's a skill you'll pray you'll never have to use, but it's a skill that once you've got, you know you can stand up to be counted if someone falls over in front of you."
There's more information on how to learn here.