St John Ambulance volunteers in Sussex are once again giving free demonstrations of life saving skills as part of the annual Restart A Heart campaign this month.

St John’s trained volunteers have arranged demonstrations in locations around the country between October 5 and 28 to give people opportunities to attend and learn essential first aid skills.

People in Sussex can attend the following demonstrations by St John volunteers:

  • Saturday, October 15,  10am-4pm  at The Beacon Centre, Eastbourne BN21 3NW

To attend a session, reserve a place by emailing cathy.lucas@sja.org.uk.

Each session is free to attend and includes practical information on how to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), how to understand the difference between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack, and how to deliver shocks to the heart with a defibrillator.

It is estimated that annually around 30,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and that for every minute that passes following a cardiac arrest and before CPR is commenced and a defibrillator used, the chances of a patient surviving drops by ten per cent. In 2022, still fewer than one person in ten survives an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Dr Lynn Thomas, medical director at St John Ambulance, said: “Anyone can be affected by a sudden cardiac arrest at any time, and without intervention, the person will quickly die, so I’d absolutely encourage readers to find a local demo to attend and to feel invited, included and involved in this year’s campaign.”