A ‘mini medics’ course at a Salford watersports centre is turning youngsters into emergency life savers.

The sessions at Helly Hansen on the Quays runs through basic first aid for school children, so that they can get that vital first bit of help in before a responsible adult shows up. 

Naoimh Mulhern, 29, part of water sports development, said: “Its important because they don’t touch on it at all in schools. There’s loads of times where people get injuries from things like heart attacks. Especially herewe sea lot of cold water shock. A lot of kids come in their free time and jump in the Quays without any adult supervision who know how to treat cold water shock. 

Infographic: Charlotte Hince

Image credit: Charlotte Hince
Outside the Watersports Centre and some of their boats. 

The course starts off with the introduction to basic first aid, and then moves onto first aid kits, safety and danger within the environment, CPR, using the defibrillator, the recovery position, choking, and scenarios for bleeding. 

Last week’s group consisted of year five pupils, ages nine to 10. The content within the programme is  tailored for that age group but can be tweaked to better fit younger or older children and is flexible in who they can deliver to. 

Naoimh said: “Weve only had teachers so far but the teachers get involved and set homework tasks. They’re really keen to review it the next day and go away with a work book so they can work through that and refer back to it. They can have clip cards that they put by their phones when theyre ringing 999 and need to know what to say. 

Its really interactive, our other official courses on first aid go into a lot of depth, so we identify that children need a basic knowledge before an adult shows up, so in the first 20 minutes they can get it going. The kids are super responsive to it, they already had little bits of knowledge, but they were super engaged. 

 Naoimh added: “There’s nothing really stopping us from moving up and down the country for schools and youth classes. 

We target schools at the minute, think once we get a few customers like that, itll be youth clubs and scout groups, and there’s also another course for teenage first aid, so I think it’ll build up through that way. 

Image credit: Charlotte Hince

Tickets are £13.31 and are still available up until the day of the course. 

The next course will run on Saturday March 7, from 10am to 1pm, you can find out more information on their Facebook page.  

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