On 12th February 2024, Dean Russell MP for Watford visited St John Ambulance volunteers to learn more about their lifesaving work to enhance first aid resilience in Watford.
Dean visited the first aid charity’s Watford and Bushey Event Services Unit to discuss the role of volunteers in the community, the first aid services they provide and opportunities to support the Unit’s work to ensure every community in Watford is First Aid confident.
As part of the visit, volunteers provided an overview of St John Ambulance’s activities in Watford. The Watford and Bushey Unit opened in 1901 and is one of the busiest St John units in Hertfordshire providing first aid training and event first aid cover at Watford football club, community, and school events. The Unit is currently made up of over 15 volunteers.
Volunteers provided Dean with a demonstration of a resuscitation scenario and training on how to use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Dean learned key first aid skills that could help save a life including how to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), treat bleeding and respond to a choking incident. Dean also spoke with volunteers about their experiences and discussed the importance of volunteering in giving back to the community.
Every year, 30,000 people in the UK experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), yet fewer than 1 in 10 people survive. It is one of the nation’s biggest killers. Empowering communities to learn first aid is vital to improving survival rates as CPR and defibrillation can increase the chances of survival by over 70%. This is community first aid saving lives.
Dean outlined his desire to support St John Ambulance’s work to raise awareness of the symptoms of cardiac arrests and other life-threatening conditions after he revealed he suffered a heart attack in August last year at Prime Ministers Questions last month.
As the nation’s leading first aid charity, St John trains 250,000 people every year and volunteers provided 477,000 hours of first aid cover in 2023 enabling thousands of events to take place safely. This work aims to keep communities safe and help save lives.
Dean Russell MP for Watford said: “I would like to thank the brilliant, hard working volunteers from St John Ambulance in Watford for inviting me to learn more about their lifesaving work. I was pleased to learn about the first aid services they provide, and the role volunteers play in supporting the NHS and local communities.
We have all seen St John volunteers ready to provide first aid cover at events across Watford. I was interested to hear about the Unit’s desire to grow the number of adult volunteers to help strengthen first aid resilience in Watford.
When it comes to health incidents such as cardiac arrests, we know every second counts, that’s why it's vital, we train more people in first aid to respond to boost survival rates and respond to local health emergencies. Sadly, last year, I had a heart attack at the age of 47, but I knew the vital signs thanks to work I had done previously with a charity.
I encourage people across Watford to get involved with St John Ambulance’s work to keep our communities safe and help save lives.”
Clare Hamilton, Unit Manager said: “We were delighted to welcome Dean Russell MP to our Watford and Bushey Unit. Dean has been a passionate first aid advocate detailing the importance of volunteering and campaigning in Parliament to ensure everyone receives the physical and mental health first aid training to give back to their communities. Visits such as this give valuable publicity and encourage more people to support our lifesaving work.
Right now, we are actively recruiting for volunteers to support our event first aid operations. St John Volunteers are an integral part of the life of the community in Watford. We encourage people of all ages to get involved and help us save lives.”
To find out more about St John Ambulance’s clinically trained volunteers and their work please visit www.sja.org.uk or contact [email protected]
