BLESSING FOR CHURCHES
FREE HEARTSTART HOW TO SAVE A LIFE COURSES ON OFFER
Herefordshire Heartstart were delighted when the Deanery Mission Fund awarded a Grant of £1,000 for a Project to deliver eight Heartstart Courses to Churches in the Diocese of Hereford.
This project has been running since June with six courses already booked, but there is still space for another two churches to book a course, with the possibility of more courses if there is sufficient demand.
At a two hour Heartstart course you will learn essential skills to help save a life. You will learn how to deal with an unconscious casualty, how to deal with choking, serious bleeding, recognise the signs of a heart attack and how to perform CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation).
By booking a course you will be helping your community to know what to do, should they be faced with a life threatening emergency.
The funding covers half the cost of running the courses, including costs such as replacement lungs, wipes, course paperwork, volunteer travel expenses to attend the course, but doesn’t cover room hire. If you can find a room we can deliver the course. We can run a course in a church, village hall, community centre, local business, school, pub, even in someone’s living room! We just need space to demonstrate and for participants to practice. We can run courses for 12 to 30 people.
The Heartstart course is recommended for anyone who would like to learn how to save a life. If you are a church warden, vicar or if you run a group with children at churches in the Diocese, you would find this particularly beneficial, but any parishioner can attend.
You never know when these skills might come in handy and this two hour course will give you the confidence to deal with a life threatening emergency, so that you can help a casualty before the emergency services arrive. Remember in the towns the average response time is 8 minutes, with 19 minutes in rural areas such as the Golden Valley. If they go into cardiac arrest you have 3 to 4 minutes to save that persons life.
Anyone over the age of 10 can attend one of these courses, with no age limit. If you aren’t able to participate in the practical elements, you can at least learn by telling someone else what to do, so if you’re faced with a real-life situation you can give someone instructions.
We have heard of case where a lady started to feel unwell in church and later went home and suffered a heart attack and sadly died. If someone had recognised the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, then help could have been on the way much sooner and the lady might have been saved.
If you are leading groups with young children, you never know when they might choke on a biscuit. Every day emergencies happen everywhere. These simple skills really can and do save lives, so book a course today.
We can provide you with posters and leaflets, you just provide the venue and take the names of people who would like to attend.
Retired Vicar Rev Phil Williams who attended a Heartstart course at Holmer Church Centre with his wife Julia said:- “So now I know my ‘DRSABC’ … after attending a Heartstart training session at Holmer Church Centre. The session was very helpful, practical and informative – one of the best two hour courses I have ever attended. So do YOU know your DRSABC? No? Then book a place on a Heartstart training session now.“
If you are connected to a Church in the Diocese of Hereford and fall within Herefordshire and would like to enquire about booking a course in your parish, please contact the Co-ordinator/Project Manager Loraine Coleman on 0845 60 60 654 (Mon to Thurs 9am to 12.45pm) or email info@herefordshireheartstart.org
By Loraine Coleman, Co-ordinator/Project Manager, Herefordshire Heartstart 13/11/13
Tel: 0845 60 60 654 (Mon to Thurs 9am to 12.45pm)
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