A NEW series of training programmes to give people the knowledge they need to save a life has been launched in Downend.
Minutes Matter Bristol is a new community-focused training programme to teach basic life support, as well as focused sessions on dealing with using bleed kits and managing choking and severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis).
Experienced professionals Sarah Doughty, a practising nurse, and Matt Piggott, a former police officer now working with young people in alternative learning provision and recently-released former prisoners, have founded the programme.
Sarah and Matt, who both have more than 30 years of experience, are giving training to NHS staff, companies, schools and the general public.
They recently held a session at Downend’s new King George V Pavilion in Sutherland Avenue.
As part of the training, Sarah and Matt demonstrated how to use a bleed control kit, similar to the one mounted on the pavilion, to treat different types of knife wound, including how to use a tourniquet and use pressure on a wound to the chest.
Matt said: “These sessions are designed to give individuals the knowledge and confidence to act quickly and effectively in a medical emergency — whether at home, at work, or in the wider community.
“Sarah and I went to school together at Downend, leaving in 1986, so this project feels like a lovely way of giving something back to the area that shaped us.”
There are two Minutes Matter Bristol sessions happening on September 25 – at King George V Pavilion from 10am to 1pm and at Downend Cricket Club from 6-9pm, which include basic life support for adults and children, including using a defibrillator, and emergency bleeding control.
Another session focusing on ‘stop the bleed’ training will take place at the cricket club on October 2 from 2-4pm.
Sessions must be booked in advance and can be used to gain a basic life support (BLS) certificate.
For more information visit the Minutes Matter Bristol Facebook or Instagram pages, email minutesmatterbristol@gmail.com or call 07769 014318.