St Mary’s RC Primary equipped and trained to save lives

Lisa Dempsey, Gail Hazeltine, Rachel Massey, Andy Kirkpatrick, Victoria Knowles. Front row: Lillie Wakeling and Jack Massey

Five members of staff from Littleborough’s St Mary’s RC Primary School have learnt how to deliver life-saving, vital skills thanks to the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) Heartstart Programme.

NWAS Community Champion and Assistant Operations Manager Rachel Massey delivered the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) training after the school raised funds to purchase the potentially life-saving equipment.

The school is now equipped with the knowledge and skills that could save a life – joining over 2.6 million people in the UK who have already been trained as part of the initiative.

Rachel said: “As a Community Champion, my role is to promote the Heartstart initiative to as many schools and community groups in Rochdale as possible and as my son attends St Mary’s, I thought they were ideal to take up the programme. The school gave no hesitation in undertaking the training

“Heartstart is a fantastic initiative. It is so important that members of the community know how to deliver emergency life support ELS in a life-threatening emergency, so I’m thrilled that the school have got on board. AEDs do save lives”

Head teacher, Mr Andy Kirkpatrick added: “We didn’t really have to think twice about bringing an AED into school, especially when we realised how simple they are to use and yet could save someone’s life. We hope that we will never have to use it but, at the same time we would never want to be in the position of having to say, “If only…”.

If any schools or community group would like to find out more about how they can get involved in the initiative, please call Rachel on 01706 750598 or email rachel.massey@nwas.nhs.uk