Students pass on life-saving skills

St John Scotland volunteers (l-r) Stuart Mathewson, Margaret Sutherland, Fraser Simpson, Eilidh Simpson, Dave Williams, Tony Houghton, Scottish Ambulance Service Community Resilience Officer Mark Smith, and St John Scotland Projects Officer Alan Lees

Eilidh Simpson, who’s 15, and her 17 years-old brother Fraser are both volunteers with St John Scotland.

The charity, whose mission is to save and enhance life, works across Scotland to help members of the public learn how to save a life in the event of cardiac arrest, by teaching bystander CPR.

The work is part of the national Save a Life for Scotland campaign, which aims to save an extra 1,000 lives by teaching half a million Scots CPR by 2020.

Recently it was the turn of more than 200 S4 pupils at Greenfaulds High School to learn the life-saving skill.

With expert help from Scottish Ambulance Service Community Resilience Officer, Mark Smith, and other St John Scotland volunteers, Eilidh and Fraser helped their classmates learn how to perform chest compressions effectively to keep a person in cardiac arrest alive before the ambulance arrives.

Eilidh and Fraser share the ambition to become doctors, so understand the importance of helping more people learn the life saving skill. They’re passionate about sharing their knowledge with their peers, and took it upon themselves to organise a session for their classmates with the support of St John Scotland. They say that volunteering with St John Scotland has also helped them gain skills and knowledge that will stand them in good stead in their chosen careers.