St John celebrates Restart a Heart Day

Every October, Restart a Heart Day encourages more people to learn CPR and life-saving skills through first aid training. The annual event was founded with the support of the European parliament and is led by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, with the support of many organisations like St John.

As one of the leading healthcare organisations, St John puts a strong focus on first aid and emergency care activities. That is why we want to enable more people to provide life-saving CPR when it matters; CPR within the first minutes of a cardiac arrest can double someone’s chances of survival.

St. John "Restart a Heart Day" around the world

St John Sri Lanka is organising several activities to raise awareness of CPR. The organisation launched a brand awareness campaign in September, to promote their online CPR training programme and launched a Restart A Heart Day audio-visual competition to the public. The winner will be announced on 16 October. St John Sri Lanka will also collaborate with the Sri Lanka College of Anesthesiologists & Intensivists to organise a public webinar on Restart a Heart Day.
St John Canada will have the manager of learning in Ontario speak to all instructors that are teaching on 16 October mention the importance of Restart a Heart Day to their classes. All class instructors will also show two short PSA videos created earlier this year on AED and CPR.
St John England has several activities planned for Restart a Heart Day. Demonstrations, set up by volunteers, will be held around the country either in person (at public locations or unit buildings) or via online platforms. The demonstrations will cover CPR, how to use a defibrillator and understanding the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest – all demonstrations will run between 9 and 23 October.
While St John Australia is still in lockdown, all activities planned for Restart a Heart Day will be ran across social media and direct mail. Planned activities for the day include weekly social media posts promoting "Shocktober" to help build brand awareness around cardiac arrests. St John Australian Capital Territory will also be promoting the St John G5 Defibrillator bundle and offering online AED Awareness courses throughout October.
St John Ghana will hold public health education classes on CPR at one of the countries busiest bus stations, Tema Station in Accra. A team of healthcare experts will be present on each station platform to teach the public vital CPR skills followed by a competition – the person that demonstrates best CPR practises will receive a selection of great St John Ghana merchandise.
Despite the challenges COVID-19 has presented, St John New Zealand is still focusing on running Restart a Heart Day events where possible. In Christchurch, there are plans to do CPR demonstrations for all ambulance hub staff based in the central city. There will also be a CPR challenge to promote the use of 3 steps for life; 1 – CALL, 2 – PUSH (CPR) and 3 – SHOCK (AED defibrillation) – to help improve survival rates of cardiac arrests within the community. Each participant of the challenge will perform CPR for a total of 2 minutes, swap with another person who will complete another 2 minutes of CPR and so on, all videos and other content about the importance of CPR will be shared via social media between 15-16 October.
St John Malaysia will be organising a series of online CPR awareness webinars on 16 October, the webinars will be conducted by St John Malaysia trainers in Bahasa Melayu and English. All candidates that successfully take part in both pre- and post- quiz will be awarded an e-Certificate of attendance.
St John Western Australia is planning a media event to reunite an OHCA (out-of-hospital cardiac arrest) survivor with the volunteers that saved their life, the televised reunion will be a lovely surprise for all parties involved. St John Western Australia will also feature a video story of a past survivor as part of the Australian Council of Ambulance Authority’s virtual Restart a Heart Day event.
St John Zambia started their Restart a Heart Day campaign on 4 October, a team of St John cadets visited local schools and shopping centres to raise awareness of the campaign. Live demonstrations of how to perform CPR is performed on manikins during several different cardiac arrest scenarios.

Please support St John's charitable first aid training programme with your donation.

14 October 2021

Nb, the photo used in this article was taken before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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