Staffs WI spreads the message on lifesaving skills
The Women's Institute has a national campaign to encourage the public to have a better understanding of how to act when someone appears to be suffering a cardiac arrest.
Staffordshire Federation of Women's Institutes are putting that message across with decorations on their Christmas tree at the Christmas Tree Festival at St Mary's Collegiate Church in Stafford.
Red hearts and information on the subject were an eye-catching way to bring this important subject to the attention of visitors to the church.
Janet Moorby, Staffordshire Federation Vice-Chair and Chair of Craft, Art & Design, was responsible for organising the display. She said: "Crafting is a really good way of attracting interest in a subject. A lot of people don't have the knowledge or perhaps the confidence to act in a situation where someone might be having a heart-related issue. Our message is that it only takes a 15 minute on-line course to learn how to do CPR and to understand how to access and operate a defibrillator."
The campaign came about after a democratic resolutions process involving the whole membership of the WI - over 170,00 members. Staffordshire's Federation's Resolutions Officer, Suzanne Evans, said: "It is important to know how to react in these circumstances and to remember that bystanders can be lifesavers."
For information on the campaign work of the Women's Institute, go to thewi.org.uk
A free 15 minute on-line training by the British Heart Foundation can be found at RevivR - search bhf.org.uk
