Tyne and Wear Metro has teamed up with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to offer life-saving awareness sessions for members of the public.
The drop-in sessions will take place at Monument Metro station in Newcastle next week from Monday August 21 to Friday August 25.
The public can drop in between 10:30am and 3pm to find more about how to use defibrillators and how to administer CPR.
Staff from the British Heart Foundation will be there to show passengers some simple steps that will help to save lives.
Nexus, the public body which owns and manages Metro, has funded the installation of defibrillators at Haymarket and Monument Metro stations in the centre of Newcastle.
The devices, known as defibs, are there for people to use if someone suffers a cardiac arrest. Defibrillators deliver an electric shock to the chest to restore a person’s heart to a normal rhythm.
Nexus are encouraging people to equip themselves with life-saving skills to help someone in an emergency.
Metro Services Director, Chris Carson, said: “After installing defibrillators at Haymarket and Monument Metro stations we felt it was important to provide training to members of the public.
“Millions of passengers pass through these stations every year and in the event someone suffers a cardiac arrest it’s vital that fellow passengers know what to do from alerting our staff, to calling 999 to administering CPR and using a defibrillator.
“Defibrillators can deliver life-saving treatment in an emergency and we are hoping the British Heart Foundation sessions will equip our passengers with the necessary skills to help someone who falls ill.”
The BHF have helped funded over 460 defibrillators in the North East and are thrilled that Nexus are taking extra steps to protect the safety of their passengers.
Nikki Bell, BHF Fundraising Manager in Tyne and Wear said: “We are delighted to be delivering these public drop-in sessions for Tyne and Wear Metro.
“The aim of the sessions is to teach members of the public how to use defibrillators and how to administer CPR. We’ll be bringing along our BHF Call. Push. Rescue kits created to make learning CPR as quick and as easy as possible and the public can get hands on experience of the steps needed to save a life. There are around 1,700 out of hospital cardiac arrests every year in the North East and sadly only 1 in 15 of these people will survive because people lack the skills or confidence to act so it’s important they know what to do so we can make a difference to this statistic.
“Every minute a cardiac arrest victim goes without CPR their chance of survival decreases by 10% and if CPR and defibrillator are not used within 8 minutes they will die.
“With use of CPR and these defibrillators a victim’s chance of survival can increase by almost 50% and we’re very happy to be involved with ensuring staff and passengers know what to do in an emergency. We can do something about improving the North East’s survival rate, well done to Nexus for taking that first step.”
Defibrillators are intended for use by anyone in public places. They are found in schools, airports, leisure centres, hospitals, clinics and ambulances.
For regular travel updates regarding Tyne and Wear Metro follow @My_Metro on Twitter, find Metro on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mymetrotw or visit Nexus.org.uk/metro or call Nexus on 0191 20 20 747.