Putting a casualty in the recovery position

Would you know what to do in a life-threatening emergency?

The skills of emergency life support are simple and can save lives.

Emergency Life Support is the set of actions needed to keep someone alive until professional help arrives.

They include performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), dealing with choking, serious bleeding and helping someone that may be having a heart attack.

Over 1 million people have been trained through the Heartstart UK initiative and NSVL has recently become affiliated to the initiative so we can offer Heartstart training to people in our area.

Heartstart UK is an initiative co-ordinated by the British Heart Foundation to teach members of the public what to do in a life-threatening emergency: simple skills that can save lives. It provides opportunities for people to learn the vital skills of emergency life support. Through Heartstart UK the BHF aims to strengthen the chain of survival by promoting and supporting emergency life support training in the community. We offer practical advice, whilst encouraging discussion on improving resuscitation knowledge and practice.

The benefit of CPR performed by a bystander in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is significant. The most important factor determining survival after a cardiac arrest is the time from collapse of the casualty to defibrillation -  performing CPR buys time and more than doubles the chances of survival .

Organise a Heartstart Course

The Heartstart course lasts for two hours and provides very practical 'hands-on' learning delivered by our experienced lifeguard trainers. Heartstart is a community programme and is suitable for anyone of any ability and experience over the age of 10.

For those who are younger than 10, basic skills such as calling for an ambulance can be taught and NSVL welcomes youngsters from the age of 6 into its Rookie Lifeguard club.

The courses are free (though there is a small charge for the handbook if required) and can be organised at a time suitable to you. They can be run from our training headquarters in Whitley Bay, or your own venue within the local area. The ideal number for a group is 6 to 10, but larger groups can be catered for where necessary or additional sessions arranged.

If you would like to find out more information about organising a Heartstart course, we prefer you to make initial contact by e-mail to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Heartstart is a national scheme so if you are not from the Whitley Bay area you can find details of all the schemes across the UK offering free training by visiting the British Heart Foundation web site.