Thousands of students across the Yorkshire Coast are learning essential CPR skills as part of a campaign to double cardiac arrest survival rates.
Survival chances for cardiac arrest patients will receive a major boost as thousands of coastal schoolchildren learn vital cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills.
A patient experiencing a cardiac arrest is nearly twice as likely to survive if a bystander steps in to perform CPR, according to the latest figures from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.
Last year, immediate actions by bystanders who intervened in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests successfully contributed to restarting 643 hearts on the scene. This early intervention led to 132 long-term survivors, equating to a 6.7 percent survival rate. By contrast, in incidents where no bystander CPR was provided, only 3.7 percent of patients survived past thirty days after being discharged from the hospital.
Life-saving training will be delivered to 35,000 students across the region for Restart a Heart Day on Friday the 16th of October. An army of 800 off-duty staff and volunteers from the ambulance service will visit 168 secondary schools, including 37 in North Yorkshire and 25 in East Yorkshire.
Dozens of schools across the Yorkshire Coast and surrounding areas are participating in the mass training event, including:
- Graham School, Scarborough College, Scarborough Sixth Form College, and Scarborough UTC
- Whitby School
- Lady Lumley's Academy in Pickering
- Bridlington School and Headlands School in Bridlington
- Driffield School
- Hornsea School and Language College
- Withernsea High School
The event is being backed by cardiac arrest survivors who understand the critical importance of bystander intervention.
Stokesley swimmer Nick Parkes, who survived a cardiac arrest in 2023 and has since swum twenty-two miles across Loch Ness, said:
"CPR saves lives. Defibs save lives. I’m only here because someone knew what to do and I am excited to share my story in support of Yorkshire Ambulance Service’s Restart a Heart campaign."
This year’s campaign theme, ‘Watch it. Learn it. Pass it On.’ highlights how one person learning CPR can help others become better prepared for a medical emergency. Students are being encouraged to pass their new skills on to family and friends, while members of the public can join in by watching a ten-minute training video to inspire others.
Since the Restart a Heart Day initiative began in the region in 2014, free CPR training has been provided to more than 311,000 youngsters at the majority of secondary schools across Yorkshire.
The impact of this widespread education could be transformative. Currently, less than one in ten people in the UK survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. If survival rates matched countries like Norway, where CPR is widely taught in schools and survival reaches 25 percent, an additional 5,000 lives could be saved nationwide every year.
Community Engagement Manager at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Jason Carlyon, said:
"The numbers speak for themselves; early CPR makes a monumental difference to whether someone survives a cardiac arrest. Having a bystander step up nearly doubles a patient's chances of coming home from hospital.
"By visiting 168 schools to mark Restart a Heart Day, our 800 volunteers can equip a new generation with the skills and confidence to act in an emergency. We want these 35,000 students to go home, spark conversations with their families and neighbours, and help us turn every community into a place where everyone knows what to do in the event of a cardiac arrest."
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