Restart a Heart Day

The Restart a Heart campaign (RSAH) is an annual initiative led by the Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) in partnership with The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and various Ambulance services. It raises awareness about cardiac arrest and helps people to learn CPR, giving them life saving skills and the confidence to use them.

In 2019 (pre Covid-19), an amazing 291,000 people were trained in CPR through Restart a Heart Day and we are extremely proud of our contribution towards that figure as that day we provided free CPR sessions at Weston Beach Race

The campaign aims to improve the low numbers of people surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Approximately 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen every year in the UK. Survival rates from out of hospital cardiac arrest remain very low in the UK, with sadly fewer than one in ten people surviving. If CPR were more widely taught, so many more lives could be saved every year.

A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops pumping blood around the body, and causes a person to collapse and stop breathing normally. Bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or even triple a victim’s chance of survival, but on average only 32% of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander.

Most people tend to only learn First Aid when they are requested to do so by their employers, however approximately 80% of cardiac arrests happen in the home. Since the pandemic, we are all still spending more time at home. Learning CPR guarantees that you have the skills to help those around you should the need arise.

By learn

ing and performing CPR, you could be the difference between life and death for a loved one at home, a colleague at work, or a stranger in the street. Sadly, without intervention it’s unlikely the person in cardiac arrest will survive.

In light of COVID-19, the steps you should take when performing CPR have changed – but the need to perform CPR has not. You can view our CPR adaptions during Covid poster here

Whether you’ve learnt CPR before so looking for a refresher course, or have never had any CPR training, you have the opportunity to learn CPR and gain the skills and confidence to help if someone collapses and stops breathing normally. It is important to quickly call 999, perform hands-only CPR and use a defibrillator. This gives everyone the best chance of surviving.

If you would like to book onto one of our First Aid courses to learn CPR, please contact us or view and book our Open Courses availability here. We still have a few spaces available on our 3 day First Aid at Work course starting on the 24th October and our Level 3 Award in Paediatric First Aid – Qualsafe on the 24th & 25th October.