Held annually, on or around 16^th October, the Restart a Heart initiative aims to improve the UK’s cardiac arrest survival rate through the teaching of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

This year’s event saw over 35,000 students learn CPR at 166 secondary schools across Yorkshire. Among those involved were Year 7 students at Withernsea High School. 151 of the school’s youngest learners benefitted from the training, which was delivered throughout the day by volunteers from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Community First Responders, St John Ambulance, and His Majesty’s Coastguard.

Leading the day’s training was Ann Bell, Deputy Station Officer at HM Coastguard Withernsea. As a fourth-generation family member of the Coastguard, with almost 27 years’ service under her belt, Ann is no stranger to lifesaving and the importance of learning essential lifesaving skills. Ann said: “We saw over 150 students at Withernsea High School where we were able to demonstrate and practise CPR skills with them to help in the event of somebody having a cardiac arrest. As the majority of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in the home, these students have now potentially learnt lifesaving skills that could help save family or friends in an emergency.

We talked about what a cardiac arrest is, and the signs to look out for. If a patient is unresponsive and not breathing, we stressed the importance of calling for an ambulance, asking for someone to get a defibrillator and starting chest compressions immediately. The sooner chest compressions can be started, and a defibrillator sourced, the better the chances are of survival.”

Organising the event was Viki Foster, the school’s Careers Leader, who added: “Our Careers Programme isn’t just about getting students into college, apprenticeships and work, it’s about equipping them with essential life skills that will benefit them as individuals in all contexts of their lives. We are very proud of the mature and responsible way Year 7 took on board the importance of learning CPR and we would like to thank Ann and all of today’s volunteers of their time and help in supporting our students.”

Jason Carlyon, Community Engagement Manager for Yorkshire Ambulance Service, founder of the event in Yorkshire, said: “Thousands of people come together every Restart a Heart Day with one message - please be confident to intervene when someone has a cardiac arrest by learning CPR. We come across many patients who are alive today purely because someone started CPR when they collapsed – an essential part in the chain of survival. With 80% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happening in the home, what better reason to learn than equipping yourself with the skills to save a loved one.”

Developed by the European Resuscitation Council, and founded with the support of the European Parliament in 2013, the Restart a Heart campaign aims to educate members of the public by delivering the knowledge and skills necessary to help administer life-saving treatment.  

In 2014, the Yorkshire Ambulance Service became the first of England’s ten ambulance trusts to fully embrace the campaign, offering all secondary schools in Yorkshire the opportunity to host a team of volunteers to teach CPR to groups of students.

With the help of volunteers, comprising off-duty ambulance staff and community first responders, around 11,500 young people at 49 schools received CPR training in the first year alone. To date, it is estimated that the Yorkshire Ambulance Service has since completed over 1,000 school visits, delivering CPR training to around 250,000 million young people across the county.

In 2016, the education programme pioneered in Yorkshire was rolled out to England’s ten other ambulance services, along with the ambulance trusts that cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Two year later, the event was adopted by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation to encourage CPR training on a global scale under the banner of ‘World Restart a Heart Day’.

Over 30,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest out of hospital in the UK every year. The earlier a patient can receive CPR and a shock from a defibrillator, the greater their chance of survival.

Restart a Heart is supported by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service Charity and delivered in partnership with the Resuscitation Council (UK), British Heart Foundation (BHF) and St John Ambulance.

Statistics show that CPR training in other countries has a massive impact on the survival rate of those suffering cardiac arrests out of hospital. In Norway, 1 in 4 people (25%) survive, compared with the UK’s 1 in 10 (8.6%) survival rate. If the UK were to achieve the same survival rate as Norway, where CPR is taught more widely in schools, an additional 100 lives could be saved every week – the equivalent of over 5,000 every year.

Among other initiatives recently launched by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service to reinforce the work of the Restart a Heart campaign is an ambassador programme to equip students with the skills to teach life-saving skills to their peers.

Jason Carlyon, Community Engagement Manager for Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: “Our Restart a Heart campaign has reached more people than we could have imagined over the last ten years, but we now need to think about future sustainability, how we can increase the numbers taught and ultimately save even more lives. Development of an ambassador programme creates a network of engaged young people and empowers them to deliver CPR coaching in their own schools and communities with benefits for all. It’s a really exciting step forward for us.”

In addition, the York-based Blue Light Theatre Company has produced a 90-second film which will be entered into a competition being run as part of the Cardiac Arrest Survival Summit in San Diego in America in November.

Produced in the style of a 1940s public information broadcast, the video plays on British stereotypes, using tongue-in-cheek humour, to deliver a serious message about being assertive and starting CPR when confronted with someone who has collapsed and isn’t breathing. The video, funded by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service Charity, has been released to mark this year’s Restart a Heart Day and can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/Ep1qpNQclrg

Finally, thanks to the work of a former student of the University of Leeds, an Augmented Reality (AR) Instagram filter has been developed to bring CPR training to life.

As part of her Master’s degree in Digital Design, the filter’s creator, Sophie Hague, has developed a free accessible learning tool to support the teaching of chest compressions on Yorkshire Ambulance Service’s ‘Pillow Partner’ training aids.

Launched by the service in 2021, Pillow Partners are pillowcases printed with a torso and basic CPR instruction to enable those without access to manikins the chance to practise hands-only CPR on a pillow.

The new digital overlay, viewed through a handheld mobile device, combines real world and computer-generated content to act as a guide for understanding the correct positioning and pace of chest compressions when using a Pillow Partner, providing a repeatable immersive learning experience.

Sophie, said: “The main goal of this extension to the Pillow Partner is to instil more confidence in learners, providing them with the knowledge and confidence to react and respond in a life-threatening emergency. The filter keeps learning CPR affordable and widely available through the emphasis of repeatable training. All the users will need is their Pillow Partner and a phone."

The Pillow Partner filter can be accessed via the Yorkshire Ambulance Service Instagram account @yorksambulance.  

ABOVE: Among the volunteers helping to run Withernsea High School’s Restart a Heart session were Ann Bell (pictured third from right) from HM Coastguard Withernsea, and Year 11 student Dean Wilson (pictured on the end, right) – a St John Ambulance volunteer. Other volunteers came from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Community First Responders. 

ABOVE: Year 7 students get to grips with CPR. 

ABOVE: Year 7 student Mason McBride is guided through CPR training by a volunteer from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. 

ABOVE: Over 150 Year 7 students benefitted from the training which took place on Monday, 16^th October.