The Ilkley’s got Heart Campaign, being prepared to save a life, continued in earnest this week with its second, live First Aid demonstration taking place at the Ilkley Tesco, lead by Paula Colman from PACO First Aid.

The one hour, live demonstration in the supermarket aisles of Tesco, showed how to effectively undertake a primary survey and administer CPR to a seizure victim. With members of the campaign team pitching in as victims and the public trying the techniques. The demonstration brought to shoppers the reality of a sudden collapse and how to calmly deal with the situation.

The ‘Ilkley’s Got Heart’ campaign encourages people who live and work in this historic town to take a simple, FREE, on-line course to equip them with the basic, but essential skills to save lives and build confidence, should they come across a situation where someone needs help.

The FREE e-learning course is designed to give everyone and anyone the essential knowledge of how to help in an emergency. Those who have even some past basic first training can refresh their knowledge. The course can be done in five, 10-minute sections that cover a Primary Survey of the casualty, CPR, Bleeding, Choking and Stroke. It can take less than an hour to complete the course, the on-line assessment, and gain the certificate of completion.

The ‘Ilkley’s Got Heart’ campaign is running throughout October & November, with the aim to reach 1000 registered Ilkley lifesavers who have completed the FREE online, ‘Prepared to Save a Life’ course. The ultimate goal is to make Ilkley a town of live-savers by getting 1 in 10 people in Ilkley prepared to save a life, but for now 1000 is the target.

Further live demonstrations will take place this Friday at Booths Supermarket at 10.30am, followed by the town centre outside Hush & Avanti on Friday 1st of November & then on Fri 8th November at The Clarke Foley Centre.  All demos will also give members of the public the opportunity to find out more information about the FREE online course. 

Anyone, anywhere can actually take the course by simply registering online at www.ilkleysgotheart.co.uk. However, those who live or work in Ilkley will count towards the 1000 lifesavers target.

The ‘Ilkley’s Got Heart’- Prepared to Save a Life online training initiative was developed by Ilkley based Virtual College, Qualsafe Ltd and the charity ‘Community Save a Life Scheme’ (CSALS), to help get more people trained nationally in basic first aid. The 4 Ilkley Community Group saw an excellent opportunity to do something great in Ilkley.

David Shaw MBE, Chairman of 4 Ilkley Community Group commented “This is an amazing team effort after many weeks of planning. The 4 Ilkley Community Group has clear role of helping to bring people to work together for the good of Ilkley, getting stakeholders together and creating ambassadors for Ilkley. The Ilkley’s Got Heart prepared to Save a Life campaign is a great example of this and the passion to make Ilkley a safer. That Ilkley is one of the best places to live and work comes through clearly, it’s wonderful to see. We look forward to welcoming all to the next four demonstrations with Booths this Friday at 10.30am.”

David continued “We would also like to thank all our sponsors and supporters without whom this campaign would not have been as effective. We thank Virtual College for creating the free e-learning course at the core of our campaign, their ongoing sponsorship and free time from their staff to help develop this special campaign. Westbrook Agency for their campaign management, creative & PR at no cost. The Ilkley BID and its members for sponsoring the publicity materials and promoting the campaign. Bradford MDC have also been generous in siting the Big Heart in the middle of Ilkley & their sponsorship. We must of course thank PACO First Aid for their help with all the demonstrations. We are also pleased to have the support Welcome to Yorkshire & Ilkley Town Council. Look out for our giant heart at the top of Brook Street in Ilkley, long may this campaign continue. 
I encourage all to take the course, go on save a life you can do it.”