More than 40,000 Yorkshire students turn into life-saving superheroes on Restart a Heart Day

Yorkshire Ambulance Service will equip more than 40,000 students across the region with a life-saving superpower in just seven hours on Restart a Heart Day.

More than 800 off-duty ambulance staff and volunteers will visit 180 secondary schools - more than ever before - on Thursday 16 October 2025 to teach CPR and how to use a defibrillator with a new 10-minute training video, created in partnership with Leeds-based digital learning specialists, Dynamic.

According to preliminary data from the University of Warwick, Yorkshire Ambulance Service clinicians were successful in restarting 762 hearts in 2024. To increase this number, it’s vital that members of the public act immediately to perform CPR when someone has collapsed and stopped breathing.

Cardiac arrest survivors and their life-savers are urging others to support the campaign by watching the new video and learning the skill that can double chances of survival.

Yorkshire Paramedic Tristan Metcalfe, who stars in the video alongside BBC Sport’s Sam Harris, said: “CPR is really easy to learn and the impact you can have could literally be the difference between life and death for someone. We are really grateful to Dynamic for developing this fantastic video which shows just how straightforward it is to step in and make the difference in these situations where every second counts. I'm super proud to be part of helping others to learn this skill and of everyone who is getting involved with Restart a Heart Day. Together, we can help more people be confident to take action and potentially save a life.”

Every year in the UK, more than 30,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital - an alarming statistic made even more sobering by the fact that 80% of these incidents occur at home. Tragically, fewer than one in ten survive. These figures highlight the urgent need for wider CPR knowledge, as anyone could find themselves needing to save the life of a friend, family member, or neighbour.

However, recent St John Ambulance research showed that a third of the British public are afraid to give CPR to a woman because they are worried about touching breasts. The same survey found that 38% of Britons said they would feel uncomfortable using a defibrillator on a woman, as its pads need to be placed on bare skin in the chest area, requiring the removal of a woman’s bra.

For the first time on Restart a Heart Day, Yorkshire Ambulance Service will be using female manikins for the CPR training at Colne Valley High School in Huddersfield to help break down barriers and stigma associated with providing life-saving assistance to women.

Jason Carlyon, Community Engagement Manager with Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: “In a cardiac arrest, the technique for giving CPR is the same for both women and men. The issue is that women are less likely to receive bystander CPR in public than men are, which can lead to lower survival rates. By introducing anatomically accurate female manikins into our training sessions, we can highlight this disparity and normalise CPR on all body types to help overcome common hesitation.”

Over the last 12 years, Yorkshire Ambulance Service has provided CPR training to 270,153 students at more than 80% of Yorkshire’s secondary school on Restart a Heart Day, which is supported by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service Charity.