Fundraisers working on behalf of The East Anglian Air Ambulance have been given CPR-training by the charity. The lottery agents gave up their time to visit a session at Norwich International Aviation Academy this week and were given a training session of what to do should somebody suffer a cardiac arrest.
In England, survival rates for people suffering a cardiac arrest are amongst the lowest in Europe. In other countries, CPR training is part of the national curriculum and it has become a mission of EAAA to improve the numbers of people capable of coming to the aid of any stricken individual with a long-term goal of having this included in schooling for youngsters as they grow up.
Lottery canvassers working for the charity seemed an obvious starting place to attend the training as Chief Executive Patrick Peal explained, “our fundraisers walk around every day wearing our branded clothing and speaking about The East Anglian Air Ambulance, so it seemed logical that in emergencies people are likely to approach them first and ask for help. Rather than them not knowing what to do, we have now given them a basic training course that could potentially make the difference between life and death.”
In total 25 fundraisers took part in the training and each received a certificate afterwards. As well as being trained how to resuscitate somebody, they were also taken through how to use a defibrillator machine. Survival rates increase by nearly 70% if a defibrillator machine is applied quickly and with more and more machines now being readily available, this could make a huge difference to somebody.
Tower Lotteries Head of Operations Richard Wild commented afterwards “It was pleasing to see just how active a part the fundraisers took in the training. The group got the opportunity to practice what they were being trained on and it was great to see so many of them volunteering. Ultimately, we hope none of them have to put this in to practice, however given their visible presence it is always a possibility. I would like to thank the charity for investing their time and resources in to training the fundraisers and I know they took a lot away with them.”
