Belgravia Leisure venues across NSW and ACT have participated in the Restart a Heart movement to help raise awareness and educate the community about CPR and AEDs.

With the official day recognised on Wednesday 16th October, Restart a Heart is a global initiative of the European Resuscitation Council, coordinated in Australia and New Zealand by the Council of Ambulance Authorities.

Participating Belgravia Leisure venues held a community day to help raise awareness and educate the public on this important message, with various activities for all patrons to get involved.

Activities on offer ranged from the water inflatable, face painting, themed cupcakes and fitness classes. There was even a chance to have a go at CPR with information and tips for patrons, with all money raised put back into local community causes through the Belgravia Foundation.

The Restart a heart initiative calls for people to remember “call, push, shock” when confronted with saving someone in a potentially life-threatening scenario.

 Statistics and facts from Restart a Heart

• 9 in 10 people won’t survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest 
• Every year around 30,000 Australians and New Zealanders suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest 
• Every minute a patient is in cardiac arrest, not receiving CPR or AED shock, chances of survival drop by 10% 
• 80% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in our homes 
• After 10 minutes without intervention the damage caused by cardiac arrest is nearly irreversible 

Ellie-May Baker, Belgravia Leisure Aquatic Safety Coordinator in NSW/ACT, helped organise the community days and said:  

“The Restart a heart initiative is so important and a great chance to spread awareness on CPR and the use of an AED. If we can have more people in our community wanting to learn about CPR, we can potentially help save more lives that otherwise may not have had the chance due to a delayed response.

“The ACT venues that participated on the day were able to showcase the importance of this message while still creating a fun atmosphere for the locals to come and enjoy. We’re lucky to have fantastic teams that care about the patrons, as without their roles and the seriousness in which they take their training, we wouldn’t have the type of venues that we do to create a safe atmosphere.”

Adriana Kalidis Health and Wellbeing Manager NSW/ACT said: “Restart a Heart is an amazing awareness campaign that every venue, brand and club should participate in. If there’s a way we can continue to educate our community from young to old on the importance of CPR management, this is it. The community engagement throughout this event has been brilliant and this is something we will continue to do on a regular basis.”

Bec Pattison, Belgravia Leisure Assistant Venue Manager at Great Lakes Aquatic Centre said: “It was actually really surprising to me how little the general population know about what to do in an emergency. I have taken my 10+ years of lifeguard training and first aid for granted that I guess I’ve just assumed that it’s just something everyone should know.

“It was certainly great starting conversations and raising awareness for something so important, Bec concluded.

Samer Kamal, Assistant Venue Manager at Stromlo Leisure Centre said: “We couldn’t be happier with the success of our ‘Restart a Heart Day’ at Stromlo Leisure Centre. The event raised awareness about the importance of CPR in our community, and the high engagement from everyone was truly inspiring”.

Restart a Heart offers local CPR courses. If you have the ability to jump on a course, get yourself booked in and be a part of the cause!

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