On or around 16th October each year, universities, ambulance services and other charitable organisations come together to raise public awareness for cardiac arrests and train members of the public in CPR as part of Restart a Heart Day. To take part in this worldwide event, the Faculty of Medicine, in conjunction with Wessex CCP, organised events throughout the city with help from volunteers from all range of healthcare degrees including medicine, nursing and cardiac physiology.
Saturday morning started off with two teams of volunteers attending two of the local parkruns. One team headed over to Eastleigh while the other met up with runners at the Southampton common. Before runners set off, volunteers ran a demonstration teaching CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) skills before some members of the public gave it a go. We also had a special group of volunteers from the UoS Paediatric Society who attended the Southampton Parkrun to teach lifesaving skills relating to children.
Whilst two teams were busy at the parkruns, a third team headed down to Bargate in the centre of the city, encouraging members of the public to get involved. Volunteers were in good spirits with a high number of shoppers wanting to learn this important skill.
Day of two of Restart a Heart began at the Bargate again but this time with the added footfall of Saints supporters heading down to St Mary’s. The streets were heaving which meant our volunteers were kept extremely busy. As supporters made their way down to the stadium, they were met by another team of volunteers who were teaching outside the ground. We loved to see kids getting involved and getting encouraged by their parents to have a go and learn! Our third and final team on Sunday, spent the afternoon at Bouldershack getting some engagement from the climbers there!
After an amazing weekend fueled by the positivity of our volunteers, we added up our counts from each of our locations. A total of 1473 members of the public were taught by our students, plus an additional 600 who heard our AED demonstrations at the parkruns.
We’d like to extend a special thanks to everyone who made this year’s Restart a Heart such a success including the organisers of Parkrun, Southampton City Council, St Mary’s Football Stadium, Bouldershack for allowing us to teach at these locations. We’d also like to thanks the Faculty of Medicine, Wessex CCP and St Johns Ambulance for all the support and equipment and of course to all our volunteers who gave time from their own schedules to make this day the success that it was!
If anyone is interested in learning morning about Restart a Heart or CPR you can visit the Resuscitation Council UK website.
The Restart a Heart Committee 2022 comprised of Harriet Perkins, Malin White, Erin Cotton, Lara MacFadyen, Issy Buchanan, Chloe Hunter-Rea, Josh Grubb and Maya Patel.
