Learning to save lives... in their lunch break

COUNCIL workers in Rochdale find their lunch breaks to be a life-saver – literally.

The 24 staff members have been foregoing sandwiches and a chat in favour of learning how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator at the first #RochDefibs lunchtime learning session.

Helen Leach, a legal officer at the council, organised the session to help staff learn the vital skills they would need should someone suffer a cardiac arrest.

She said: “I was involved with the aftermath of a car crash last year when I had to do CPR. When I arrived there was a small group of people just staring into the car and I was shocked at their reluctance to get involved for fear of making the situation worse.

“As a result I am very keen for as many people as possible to feel able and confident to help someone should they ever need to.”

The life-saving ‘Roch Defibs’ project aims to increase the chances of survival in the borough from 8.6 per cent to 45 per cent.

Since its launch in November 2015, the project has trained over 1,600 local people in CPR and defibrillation, and placed 32 defibrillators in highly-populated and easily accessible community venues.

For more information about the #RochDefibs project, CPR, defibrillators and where they are located in the Rochdale borough, visit rochdale.gov.uk/ defibsCOUNCIL.