Students, staff and members of the local community were all in attendance at a specifically organised awareness session held at Ponteland Middle School to learn emergency life saving skills.
The training provided by Bryan Shendon and David Wilson, trustees of The Stephen Carey Fund, followed the acquisition and installation of a Public Access Defibrillator at the school which shares its site with the high school adjacent.
During the two hour session those attending learned the differences between angina, a heart attack and cardiac arrest going on to explain how to place someone in the recovery position with the latter sections dealing with CPR and the use of a defibrillator. Â Treasurer, Bryan Shendon, said “The school contacted us a few months back to see if we could help them acquire a defibrillator and after a quick conversation they were really keen to look at a package that made the device available to the surrounding community” and going on to comment “we had also been working with Toffs, a provider of retro football shirts, who had been really keen to help us out and we put the project together with all three parties all contributing to the cost of the package”.
With both schools home to approximately 1,800 students with the staff taking this number circa 2,000 this was a significant installation in the eyes of the charity and one they hope will trigger several further projects within the area.
