A milestone moment for EAAA after 30,000 CPR-trained in 12 months

The impact of CPR volunteers

What makes the 30,000 milestone even more remarkable is that many those have been trained by EAAA’s team of CPR volunteers; incredible people who give their time, energy and expertise to improve the outcomes for patients in their own community, alongside EAAA’s staff trainers Jack and Simone.

Two of EAAA’s CPR volunteers are Tony Brown and Andy Lewis. Andy, from Bedfordshire, has been a volunteer CPR Trainer with EAAA for five years and, in his spare time, he teaches life-saving skills to workplaces, schools, community groups, parish councils and young farmers groups across the county. These sessions don’t just give people information and practical skills, but they also build people’s self-belief that they can help somebody in a medical emergency.

Andy says, “Bedfordshire, being largely a rural county, has communities which can often be in locations which are not quickly reached by the ambulance service and, therefore, it is crucial that more people understand the importance of being able to deliver CPR and have the confidence to use a defibrillator.”

A proud moment for Andy came last year when he heard that the skills he had taught to others had been used in a real-life emergency situation.

“In 2023, I trained approximately 80 Bedfordshire Police Cadets over two training sessions,” Andy explains. “A couple of weeks after the training I was advised by the Police Training Officer that three of the Cadets had used the skills taught to them. This made me feel that the training is extremely worthwhile and should be taught to as many people as possible to help save more lives.”

Andy also recalls that a couple of years ago, he attended a village hall in mid-Bedfordshire to deliver a CPR training session to a community group and, to his surprise, there were two therapy ponies already in the hall being fussed over by the group. “There was no way I could compete with the ponies, so the CPR session was delayed for 30 minutes as everyone wanted their photograph taken with the ponies… including me!” He says.

Sharing knowledge to build confidence

Tony Brown, from Cambridgeshire, has been a CPR volunteer with EAAA since April 2023. A key point he highlights when training others is the differences between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest.

“I discovered that many people think they are the same thing,” he says. A heart attack is a blood flow problem within the heart wall. It is a circulation issue caused by a blocked artery so that the heart muscle cannot get enough oxygen. A cardiac arrest is a life-threatening emergency where the heart stops beating and stops pumping blood around the body, preventing it getting to vital organs, particularly the brain.”

In the hour sessions, which are free of charge and all cover the same programme, Tony also runs through the basic principles of CPR, the chain of survival, the acronym DRABC (Danger; Response; Airway; Breathing; CPR) and the value of AEDs, also known as defibrillators. These are life-saving piece of equipment that can be used on someone suffering from a cardiac arrest to shock the heart back into a regular rhythm.

Using CPR training manikins and training defibrillators helps to consolidate people’s learning and enables them to put their newly learned skills into practice.

Tony adds, “I’ve trained people in workplaces, schools and scout and guide groups, community groups, such as Rotary Club and WI. Anyone can learn CPR, including young children; I recently trained somebody with sight loss. After one training session with a Brownie group, we heard that one of the Brownies had gone home after the session and immediately took her family out on an expedition around their village to locate all the AEDs!”

This is exactly the kind of knowledge and awareness that EAAA aims to build, and with 30,000 extra people in our region equipped with CPR skills and knowledge, this will ultimately have an impact on lives being saved.

“It feels very rewarding to have been involved in achieving this milestone.  However, I remain conscious that we have a very long way to go in East Anglia, and the country in general, to match the level of public awareness and experience in CPR achieved in some other countries,” Tony says.

Andy agrees and says, “The statistics speak for themselves. The more people that can be taught how to perform CPR and have the confidence to use a defibrillator, more lives will be saved.”

Josh Lawrence, EAAA’s Community CPR Training Manager, says, “At EAAA we are delighted that 30,000 people received CPR and AED training from the charity last year. We couldn’t have achieved this without the group of incredible volunteers, including Andy and Tony, who donate their time to ensure there are more life-savers in our local communities. A heartfelt thank you.”