HEALTH chiefs are calling on secondary schools in the North West to sign up for a free lesson in life-saving.

North West Ambulance Service, in partnership with Resuscitation Council UK, British Heart Foundation and St John Ambulance, is to provide the country’s biggest ever CPR training event on Restart a Heart Day on October 16.

More than 16,000 students were trained in CPR skills across the North West on the Restart a Heart Day last year.

Students will receive practical lessons that cover how to recognise cardiac arrest, how to help by doing effective CPR and how to use a defibrillator.

Ambulance services have been lobbying the UK government to make CPR training in schools mandatory, but it is still not part of the national curriculum.

They estimate if CPR skills were taught in schools, survival rates could significantly increase as they have in Scandinavia with people who have a cardiac arrest in Denmark three times more likely to survive than a decade ago.

David McNally, complementary resources manager at NWAS, said: “Knowing what to do in an extreme emergency situation cannot be underestimated. CPR skills are so simple to learn and they absolutely do save lives. We are targeting secondary schools because children pick up new skills with ease and can take them into adult life.

“We are calling on teachers, parents and students to put the pressure on their schools to take part in our movement to make the North West a ‘cardiac smart’ place. This means signing up to Restart a Heart Day, encouraging friends and family members to learn CPR, installing defibrillators in local communities and ultimately making our communities healthier and safer places to be.”