Why life-saving skills are so close to my heart
Footballer
Fabrice Muamba tells us why our campaign to have life-saving skills
taught in schools means so much to him
Monday September 10, 2012
Since my collapse I have asked myself whether I could step
in and help someone whose heart had stopped beating normally. Would
I have the courage to carry out the life-saving
actions that could mean someone survives to leave hospital
and return home to their family?
Thankfully, I've not been forced to answer those questions yet
but every year thousands of men, women and children witness
someone having a cardiac arrest. They see someone – a
friend, family member, or a complete stranger – collapse with
little chance of survival without prompt CPR and a
defibrillator.
Decision-makers across the UK have the power to fill our streets and homes with more life-savers
Sadly,
not
enough of those bystanders step in and help because they
don't know life-saving skills, including vital CPR.
But decision-makers across the UK have the power to fill our
streets and homes with more life-savers and improve our terrible
cardiac arrest survival rates by making sure all young
people learn life-saving skills at school. It would create
hundreds of thousands of new life-savers every single year.
It only takes two hours to learn these skills, repeated each
school year, but in return the next generation will be given a
lifetime of confidence to help in a medical
emergency.
I'm not the only one backing this campaign by the British Heart
Foundation, Resuscitation Council UK and The Sun. I helped carry
the weight of 100,000 supporting signatures to Downing
Street and now I hope decision-makers across the UK have
the courage to carry out their own life-saving action by making
sure every young person leaves school knowing how to save a
life.