THE Ilkley’s Got Heart Campaign continued this week with a live first aid demonstration in Ilkley Tesco, lead by Paula Colman from PACO First Aid.

The one hour, live demonstration in the supermarket aisles showed how to undertake a primary survey and administer CPR to a seizure victim.

With members of the campaign team pitching in as victims and the public trying the techniques, the demonstration brought to shoppers the reality of a sudden collapse and how to calmly deal with the situation.

The ‘Ilkley’s Got Heart’ campaign encourages people to take a simple, free, on-line course to equip them with the basic, but essential skills to save lives.

The course can be done in five, ten-minute sections that cover a primary survey of the casualty, CPR, bleeding, choking and stroke. It is running throughout October and November, with the aim to reach 1000 registered Ilkley lifesavers. The ultimate goal is to make Ilkley a town of live-savers by getting one in 10 people in Ilkley prepared to save a life.

As part of the campaign further live demonstrations will take place this Friday at Booths Supermarket at 10.30am. This will be followed by a live demonstration on Friday, November 1 in the town centre outside Hush & Avanti and then on Friday, November 8 at The Clarke Foley Centre.

The ‘Ilkley’s Got Heart’- Prepared to Save a Life online training initiative was developed by Ilkley based Virtual College, Qualsafe Ltd and the charity ‘Community Save a Life Scheme’ (CSALS). The ‘4 Ilkley Community Group’ saw an opportunity to do something great in Ilkley.

David Shaw, chairman of ‘4 Ilkley Community Group’ said: “This is an amazing team effort after many weeks of planning. The 4 Ilkley Community Group has clear role of helping to bring people to work together for the good of Ilkley, getting stakeholders together and creating ambassadors for Ilkley.

“The Ilkley’s Got Heart prepared to Save a Life campaign is a great example of this and the passion to make Ilkley a safer.

“That Ilkley is one of the best places to live and work comes through clearly, it’s wonderful to see.

“We look forward to welcoming all to the next four demonstrations with Booths this Friday at 10.30am.”

David added: “We would also like to thank all our sponsors and supporters without whom this campaign would not have been as effective.

“We thank Virtual College for creating the free e-learning course at the core of our campaign, their ongoing sponsorship and free time from their staff to help develop this special campaign.

“I encourage all to take the course, go on save a life you can do it.”

Register online at www.ilkleysgotheart.co.uk.