'Cut a bra and save a life' - South Coast services urge people to start CPR quickly
It comes ahead of Restart a Heart Day on Friday
Last updated 15th Oct 2026
Services on the South Coast are urging people to cut a bra and save a life, as new research finds a significant number of men would hesitate to perform CPR on a female stranger.
A survey of UK adults, conducted by Censuswide on behalf of the charity, found that three in 10 men would hesitate because of concerns that they would be accused of inappropriate touching, and 20% said they would be concerned that someone may film it.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance are urging people to not hesitate when it comes to female patients.
Jamie Plumb's a consultant there and said: "Very sadly, there is some evidence to suggest that people are a bit reluctant to do CPR on females, because you do need to expose the chest to do adequate CPR.
"People are a bit worried about dignity in that situation, but you really need to move past that.
"One of the things you need to do is take clothing off or cut clothing off if you can, and again, just go for the middle of the chest.
"In a lady, that might just be right between the breasts on the sternum, so feel for the hard part of the sternum.
"You're just pressing down with both hands, and you're going for around 100 presses per minute.
"Some people say you can sing a song like 'Nelly the Elephant' and just do it to that beat, but you want to be doing a third to half of the depth of the chest, nice and firmly, and fairly quickly."
He added it's "vital" compressions are started as soon as possible as there's generally around a two to three minute window where you can make a difference.
Around 40,000 cardiac arrests happen yearly with the estimated survival rate for these so called out-of-hospital cardiac arrests is less than one in 10, St John Ambulance said.
“Women are less likely to receive CPR in public and hesitation is costing lives,” said St John Ambulance’s medical director, Dr Lynn Thomas.
“Every second counts in a cardiac arrest and doing something is always better than doing nothing.
“It’s important we don’t shame anyone for hesitating as these fears are real and understandable, but no-one should ever feel afraid to try to save a life.”