Annual University of Worcester event to highlight importance of CPR
The university's 24-hour CPR marathon that's organised by its Paramedic Society gets underway today (16 March)
An annual event by the University of Worcester which shines a spotlight on learning and knowing how to do CPR gets underway this morning (16 March).
The CPR marathon has been held in recent years and sees people from all around the university, including staff, get involved with aiming to perform the life-saving skill continuously on a training mannequin for 24 hours straight.
Organised by the Paramedic Society (Parasoc), it's also raising funds for Heartstart Malvern and Midlands Air Ambulance Charity.
"This year we are focusing on the importance of early CPR and early defibrillation and how important that is on an out of hospital cardiac arrest,” third year paramedic science student Elvie Weaver said.
“Researchers found that if we start CPR and effective CPR really quickly, same with early defibrillation, chances of survival increase.”
Chair of Parasoc, Dylan Stephenson, added: “To raise awareness for CPR skills, not just for people around the university campus but also the general public as well is great because obviously anyone that can perform CPR, you're improving survival odds of an out of hospital cardiac arrest kind of tenfold.”
Last year’s marathon saw those involved even receive a surprise visit and some encouragement from actor Michael Stevenson, known for his role as paramedic Iain Dean in Casualty.
This year's event is due to start around 9am and finish at the same time tomorrow (17 March).