16 October 2025

Throughout the year, staff and volunteers from Isle of Wight Ambulance Service (IWAS), help people in our local communities learn the potentially life-saving skill of CPR and for this year’s Restart a Heart Day, they are supporting the next generation of lifesavers.

On 16 October 2025, staff from IWAS are partnering with fire stations across the Island to help more than 900 students from over 25 schools learn how to use a defibrillator and carry out CPR. This is the ninth year that the ambulance service has offered this free training to pupils increasing the amount of people in the community who know what to do should a friend or family member have a cardiac arrest.

Eight in ten out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home and by starting CPR while waiting for an ambulance, you increase their chance of survival. With more community-based defibrillators now available, knowing how to use this equipment and carry out basic life support, can make a real difference.

Louise Walker, Head of Education and Community Response at IWAS, said, “For many people it is about not just giving them the skills to carry out CPR but the confidence to do it. Every second is vital when someone has a cardiac arrest. We want to give people the best chance of survival and while we hope no one is ever in a situation they need to use these skills, knowing what to do is an incredibly powerful feeling.”

This is just one of the actions taken by Isle of Wight Ambulance Service to help improve the chances of survival of cardiac arrest on the Island. Earlier this year they partnered with South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) to launch the GoodSAM app, helping 999 call handlers direct clinically trained staff.

Following the success of this, anyone who is a qualified first aider or who has completed the Resuscitation Council UK Lifesaver online training and is a registered GoodSAM Cardiac Responder may be called upon. This helps to improve the chances of a trained individuals being able to respond to a cardiac arrest in the community. You can find out how to register as a GoodSAM Cardiac Responder by visiting the website.

One of the most important things someone can do when faced with an individual who has had cardiac arrest is start CPR. Someone who knows this better than many is Gwen whose husband suffered a cardiac arrest at home on Valentines Day two years ago. Gwen who is now part of Life After Cardiac Arrest support group, said, “Although I didn’t believe it at the time, my role in carrying out CPR on my husband at the bottom of our stairs, was as vital as all the professional support that followed in his Chain of Survival. He’s now living life much as he did prior to that night, yet without CPR in the first few minutes of his cardiac arrest, things might have been very different.”

Dean Haward, Group Manager for the Isle of Wight at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service said: “Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue are proud to be able to host the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service Restart a Heart day training at local fire stations. As an emergency service, we recognise the positive difference an early intervention with CPR can make. It is vital that people know this life-saving skill and it is great that so many young people have taken up the opportunity to take part in the training.”