Fewer than 1 in 10 people have the skills to save a life according to St Johns Ambulance, and 2 in 5 of us say that it would take the death of a loved one for them to pay serious attention to First Aid. 1 in 2 parents say they feel helpless in an emergency situation and only 1 in 5 of us know any basic First Aid skills.

These statistics are crazy considering how many of us are tech savvy, capable of doing all manner of online tasks and following demanding career professions.

It took just a few hours this week for Absolute Healthcare staff to pass a First Aid awareness course held by Karen Murrell of www.training4healthcare.co.uk

We listened intently to a variety of ‘scenarios’ that could happen to any one of us, and learned how to promote recovery to people young or old, who might need lifesaving help from us in the future.

If every single person in the UK had some form of compulsory First Aid training, many lives could be saved, because some of the simplest forms of first aid response can give patients a fighting chance before emergency services arrive.

Did you know for example, that you no longer have to give mouth-to-mouth in order to perform lifesaving CPR on someone? Correct positioning and simple, consistent compressions can make a difference until paramedics arrive.

Other useful facts we learned included cling film being the best method of dressing a large burn, the use of adrenaline auto injectors for allergic reactions, and ways to cope with choking in babies and adults – choking being a far more serious condition than many, where speed and knowledge is of the essence.

All Absolute Healthcare staff receive First Aid training as part of their employment, on top of the experience they may already have and we wholeheartedly hope that more members of the public will think about learning at some point in their lifetime, so that those statistics don’t remain crazy for too long.