A life-saving gift from the Harrogate Lions to our town's high schools

Harrogate Lions members Bernadette Reid, Stewart Reid, Dave Terzza and Steve Caldwell, with Harrogate High School students Jake Hutton (12), Edie Johnson, Joe Sansom (12) and Felicity Leech (12) (1805221AM1).

Bernadette Reid, who is taking a lead on the project for the Lions, emphasised that even the simplest, most basic first aid could save somebody’s life at any time.

She said: “You hope that no one will ever have cause to use it, but the chances are that at least one of these children will have cause to use their training. These are really important life skills to have.

“If someone falls over in town, most people stand still in horror and don’t know what to do, but hopefully this will help youngsters to be calm and assess the situation - to know all the right procedures and protocol in these situations and to know when to call an ambulance.

“It’s about giving them the confidence to say, I know what to do.”

Bernadette said the training is being rolled out for year seven students, with the aim of having more than 1,200 students trained up by September - and the long term hope is for the project to continue beyond this year.

The students taking part will be given St John Ambulance certificates to recognise their achievements and all that they have learnt.

The Lions are staunch advocates of having defibrillators widely installed in every community, and are continuing to move forward with their incredible fundraising efforts to bring more of them into our town.

Bernadette said: “There is also evidence to show that knowing first aid can improve the outcome when someone has a heart attack.

“It’s nice to think that there will be more youngsters roaming around town with these important life skills.

“They might end up having to use them when they’re out and about, or at home. You just don’t know when you might need it.”

Fundraising work so far

It can be hard to keep up with all the great community work that the Harrogate Lions do. Their team of hard-working volunteers take a lead on all sorts of projects to benefit our district.

From helping out at large scale community events, to fundraising and supporting individuals with their own projects, their work is varied and far-reaching.

One of their most recent events was a race night held at the Knox Arms, which was organised to help raise funds for a new defibrillator.

To find out more about the work of the Harrogate Lions team and their projects, visit their website: https://lions105c.org.uk/harrogate