SOUTH Cumbria students have been given a lesson in life-saving as part of the UK's biggest ever mass CPR training event.

The national Restart a Heart Day training events took place on Tuesday at Ulverston Victoria High School, St Paul's CE Junior School, Barrow, Cartmel Priory School, John Ruskin School, Coniston and The Lakes School, Troutbeck.

The North West Ambulance Service, St John Ambulance, the British Red, the fire service, community first responders and other rescue services volunteered their time to offer free life-saving training to young people and school staff.

Restart a Heart Day was spearheaded by Resuscitation Council UK, a professional body that aims to improve cardiac arrest survival rates.

The country’s ambulance services were set a target of training more than 100,000 people in the UK in basic life support skills in one day.

The students learnt how to act in a cardiac arrest situation and every young person got to test out their #CPRhands on a "Mini Anne" CPR manikin.

Ulverston Victoria High School saw more than 700 students take part in the training. The school received 35 mini CPR manikins.

Sue Hewson, deputy headteacher at UVHS, said: "We all know that education is about much more than exam results, and opportunities like this are very important and can be quite literally in this instance life-saving."

St Paul's CE Junior School was the only primary in Cumbria, and possibly the UK, involved in the day. The St Paul's pupils have already been involved in Heart Training.

Amanda Mowat, a higher level teaching assistant at St Paul's, said: "It was a great session of CPR training."

Complementary resources manager at North West Ambulance Service, David McNally, said: “We are thrilled 55 schools signed up to our lesson in lifesaving on Restart a Heart Day, because it is a sad fact that cardiac arrest kills people of all ages and from all walks of life.

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“80 per cent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the home, so knowing what to do in this extreme emergency situation cannot be underestimated.

“In a cardiac arrest situation, the only way a person can survive is with CPR and defibrillation. These are simple skills to learn which really do save lives.”

More than 30,000 people have cardiac arrests outside of hospital in the UK every year. If this happens in front of a bystander who starts CPR immediately before the arrival of paramedics, the patient's chances of survival double.

Currently in the UK, where there is no basic life support training on the national curriculum, less than one in 10 people (8.6 per cent) survive a cardiac arrest. In places such as Norway, where CPR is taught in schools, survival rates are 25 per cent. If this was achieved in the UK, an additional 5,000 lives could be saved each year.