Kind-hearted Sheffield United FC and their Community Foundation Support World’s Biggest Life-saving Lesson

Sheffield United Football Club and the Sheffield United Community Foundation are supporting a major Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) initiative to teach life-saving skills at local schools.

On Tuesday 18 October 2016 - Restart a Heart Day – more than 600 YAS staff and volunteers will visit 110 secondary schools across Yorkshire (22 of which are in South Yorkshire) to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to more than 20,000 children.

In preparation for the event, YAS recently visited the Sheffield United SteelPhalt Academy to provide a CPR demonstration to some of the players, including Jack O’Connell, Matt Done, Mark Duffy and Ben Whiteman.

James Whydle, Health and Wellbeing Co-ordinator at the Sheffield United Community Foundation was delighted with the visit.

He said: “We are very happy to support YAS and promote Restart a Heart Day. Learning how to be able to undertake the simple procedure of CPR may just help someone save a life! It was great that the players got involved and we hope that this will encourage more people to learn CPR.”

YAS first delivered the mass training event in 2014 to mark the Resuscitation Council’s Restart a Heart Day. Over the last two years YAS has provided CPR training to 31,000 youngsters at 137 secondary schools in Yorkshire in partnership with the Resuscitation Council (UK), British Heart Foundation, St John Ambulance and other agencies.

This year’s event is set to exceed all expectations with the news that all 14 UK ambulance trusts will be working in partnership to host mass CPR training events on Restart a Heart Day. It is hoped that more than 100,000 youngsters nationally will receive the life-saving lesson on 18 October, which will make it the biggest event of its kind ever held in the world.

Over 30,000 people suffer cardiac arrests outside of hospital in the UK every year. If this happens in front of a bystander who starts CPR immediately before the arrival of the ambulance, the patient’s chances of survival double. This is why YAS is committed to providing the life-saving education across Yorkshire.

Jason Carlyon, Resuscitation Manager for YAS, said: “We are incredibly proud of the award-winning CPR training event that we hold every year to mark Restart a Heart Day and are delighted that Sheffield United FC and their Community Foundation are supporting our efforts.

“Heart disease can strike without warning and can affect anyone of any age. When someone has a cardiac arrest, what happens in the vital minutes before the arrival of an ambulance is crucial. Cardiac arrest survival rates will improve if more people learn CPR and have the confidence to perform the simple procedure in an emergency.”