Village aims to have first aider on every street

A village near Selby is hoping to become the first in North Yorkshire to have a first aider on every street.

Residents of Riccall have been learning life-saving skills from St John Ambulance as part of the charity's First Aid Village project.

Twenty-four people have completed the sessions so far, with the aim to have about 50 people in the village, which has a population of about 2,500, learn the skills.

St John Ambulance trainer and community first aider Amanda Whitwood said: "If we can keep someone alive, prevent their condition deteriorating until an ambulance arrives, then they've got more chance of surviving or making a better recovery."

Riccall is one of the first places in the country to take part in the First Aid Village project, after the idea was started in Bempton, near Bridlington, last year.

It focuses on five ways to save a life, covering CPR and using a defibrillator, learning the recovery position, and dealing with choking, a heart attack or severe bleeding.

Whitwood said the aim was to "create a community of local people who've received sessions, awareness raising, familiarisation with various life-saving medical conditions or incidents and injuries so they can help out in the event of a crisis until an ambulance arrives".

Each person takes part in three sessions, with each lasting about two-and-a-half hours.

Amanda said: "Emergencies can happen anywhere.

"Here we've got the A19, you get accidents on there, accidents can happen in the home, children out playing and some of these incidents can be life-threatening.

"The quicker you get emergency support to them the better the chances are."

Keith Dawson, who has completed the training, said: "You never know what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, and the more people we get trained up the better it is for the community."

Sam Kelly added the sessions had been very useful.

"There's a lot to learn and it's been very intense but I do feel like my confidence has grown.

"All credit to the local community for getting involved, it's just a very important initiative."

Amanda Kershaw, who also took part, said she joined to freshen up her existing skills.

"I've always done a first aid qualification but my previous one was well out of date," she said.

"I did the first aid at work, but now I'm a grandmother, I've got four grandchildren... I just want to keep my skills up to date."

Whitwood said at the moment there were three other First Aid Villages across the country and the charity was hoping to create more.

"We are one of the first but it is a project that we are hoping will roll out and become quite significant across the country."

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