Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, Simon Baynes MP, has co-signed a letter, along with Welsh Conservative MP and MS colleagues, calling on the Welsh Education Minister to make the teaching of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and other lifesaving skills compulsory in the new Curriculum for Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives are also calling for lessons in the use and purpose of defibrillators to be included in the curriculum, making it compulsory for all secondary schools in Wales to teach essential lifesaving skills, as they are already in England and Scotland. This follows a significant amount of campaigning on the issue by Suzy Davies MS in the Senedd.
The campaign is strongly supported by the friends and family of Janene Maguire, from Gwernymynydd, Mold, who died unexpectedly after suffering a cardiac arrest in February 2000, and after Janene’s daughter, Cara, suffered a cardiac arrest herself in August 2020, during which, her friend Michael, a former soldier trained in first aid, was able to perform CPR until paramedics arrived – saving her life.
Simon Baynes MP said:
“Teaching CPR, defibrillator use and other lifesaving skills to Welsh schoolchildren has the potential to save countless lives and ensure that no other family has to suffer the preventable loss of a loved one to a cardiac arrest. I fully back this campaign and hope, along with my Welsh Conservative colleagues, that the Welsh Government delivers in passing on these vital skills to our children.”
