Charity honour for hero parents

BRITAIN’S leading first-aid charity will honour parents or carers who have saved the life of a child at its awards ceremony next year.

The decision by St John Ambulance to hand out the prize follows the success of its animated advertising campaign The Chokeables – since it was first aired, 45 parents have contacted the charity to say they put the advice into practice and saved the lives of their own children.

In the advert, a princess, voiced by comedy star David Walliams, saves the life of a jelly-baby which is choking.

Despite the humorous approach, Walliams’s character shows the correct technique: up to five back blows, followed by up to five chest thrusts. The jelly-baby, voiced by comedian Johnny Vegas, then coughs up a peanut.

Now St John Ambulance will honour people at its Everyday Heroes awards. Chief executive Sue Killen said: ‘We are thrilled with the success of The Chokeables and so proud that it helped 45 parents have the confidence to take action in an emergency. That is why we decided to create our new award – Hero Parent of the Year – for those who have used first aid on their child in a life-threatening situation.’

Research shows that fourfifths of parents do not know the correct technique, despite more than half saying that coming across a choking child is a major concern.

The news was announced in the House of Commons last week, where MPs were urged by representatives from the British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross and St John Ambulance to back a Bill that will make first aid training mandatory in secondary schools.

The drive is backed by The Mail on Sunday – our Teach Every Child To Be A Livesaver campaign was launched to help reduce the thousands of deaths that occur each year in circumstances where first aid could have helped.

The decisive vote on whether the Bill goes forward takes place on Friday and St John Ambulance has created a special website – shown below – that makes it easy for individuals to email their MP asking them to support the proposals.

More than 13,000 people have written in so far.