Life-threatening emergencies such as heart attack and cardiac arrest require bystanders to take immediate action. Emergency Life Support (ELS) is a set of simple, easily learned skills that can keep someone alive in an emergency situation until professional help arrives. These include cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which can double the survival chances for someone suffering cardiac arrest. Heartstart UK is a BHF initiative that has helped train 1.6 million people in ELS across the UK.

This training is crucial in Wales where death rates from coronary heart disease are high. People of all ages can learn these vital skills, and a BHF scheme, focused on training schoolchildren, is aiming to create a generation of Welsh life-savers. In under a year, Mike Cowley trained 800 teachers, and, as a result, an amazing 18,500 children learned life-saving ELS skills. The scheme continued to grow throughout 2007/8.

The ongoing Welsh scheme has been a tremendous success. Since Mike took up his post, thousands more young life-savers have been trained, with 154 more affiliated schools making a total of 225. Mike told us: "It's a brilliant scheme. In an emergency seconds save lives and, if properly trained, children are just as capable of applying ELS skills as adults, which means more people in the community could survive cardiac arrest". The scheme has huge potential. Because schools are at the heart of the community they are ideal places to encourage and recruit adults as well as children to learn vital ELS skills. Mike says: "With 1,500 schools in Wales I feel the project is vital...there are enormous benefits for the whole country in teaching ELS in schools and in the community."

To find out how you and your children can become potential life-savers, please go to bhf.org.uk/heartstart