St John Ambulance

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‘You shop. Stores donate. SJA saves lives.’ – using social media to raise funds for the St John Ambulance


St John Ambulance

St John Ambulance

With the launch of their Shop to Save Lives app, St John Ambulance has joined the ranks of charities such as Cancer Research UK, Save the Children and Shelter in giving supporters an easy way to generate donations from more than 1,800 online retailers.

By simply downloading the App SJA supporters can do their normal online shopping with retailers as varied as Amazon and iTunes to M&S and Tesco. In turn the retailer will donate to St John Ambulance – at no cost to the shopper. With no need to sign-up or share any personal details, it really is as easy as ‘You shop. Stores donate. SJA saves lives.’

“I really hope our staff, volunteers and supporters will download the App and enjoy knowing that every time they shop online they are helping SJA do more of what we do well – teaching people to be the difference between a life lost and a life saved” says Anthony Davison of the SJA Fundraising Team.


Providing more ways to shop and raise funds for SJA will be a focus for fundraising throughout 2015 and

St John Ambulance

St John Ambulance people

a new page is soon to be launched on the SJA website to promote other opportunities. “We’re working with some great brands to negotiate discounts and deals which will benefit our volunteers and supporters at the same time as creating new income for the charity. It’s about leveraging our strength as a charity, with an army of volunteers and loyal supporters, to shop as usual – but with companies that are going to help SJA financially” explains Anthony.

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The Benefits of First Aid Training – How it helped saved a three year old from choking!


Andy Cave

Andy Cave

We at PatientTalk.Org are strong supporters of as many people as possible receiving first aid training.

St John Ambulance have produced a number of cases studies which we feel show that value of formal training. Today’s example looks at choking.

Andy Cave, 35, experienced every parent’s fear when his young daughter choked on a coin in November 2013 but he drew on skills he’d learned just weeks before to save her.
Three-year-old Keerah had been playing with her money-box when suddenly she started to struggle. As she began to turn pale, Andy began to perform first aid on his daughter. After three back slaps, the coin eventually dislodged, clearing Keerah’s airway and saving her life. Following the incident, Andy reached out to his friends on social media, encouraging them to learn first aid. Since his experience, he believes all parents should be taught basic life saving skills that he said helped him to deal with an incredibly scary situation.


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Save a Life September – find out how St John Ambulance are promoting life saving skills and first aid in September!


Save a Life September

Save a Life September

This September, you could learn how to save a life, as St John Ambulance’s annual awareness month, Save a Life September, returns. The nation’s leading first aid charity will be putting on free demonstrations across the country and urging people to download the free St John Ambulance first aid app, so you can carry life saving advice around in your pocket.

Research* carried out earlier this year by St John Ambulance has revealed the following statistics:

  • 97% of people believe that learning first aid is important and yet just 10% of people have taken steps to learn it in the last 3 years.
  • Less than 10% of respondents has had any form of first aid training.
  • Almost one in four people is too scared of harming the victim to learn first aid.
  • Only 38% of households have a first aid kit at home. Of those, only 8% check the kit.

St John Ambulance believes that with a few first aid skills, anyone can be the difference between life and death. The charity’s Save a Life September campaign sees volunteers from the charity demonstrating five easy to follow techniques that could potentially save a life, and giving out pocket-size first aid guides so that people can carry the advice wherever they go. The free, chart-topping St John Ambulance first aid app is available on smartphones, and the website (www.sja.org.uk) offers demo videos, an interactive game, and plenty of first aid advice.


The charity’s CEO, Sue Killen, said: ‘Learning first aid is one of the single most important things you can do in your life. You may need it anywhere – at work, at home, in school, playing sport – you just don’t know. With basic first aid skills, anyone can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved.

‘By holding free first aid demonstrations across the country, we want to reach as many people as possible, so that more people are equipped with the skills to save a life. Anyone who needs first aid should get it – and the more of us that can help in an emergency, the better. No one should die for a lack of first aid.’

To find out how you can learn to save a life this September, visit www.sja.org.uk/sals.

Key facts about Save a Life September

 

  • Save a Life September is St John Ambulance’s annual awareness month, designed to encourage more people to learn vital first aid
  • Now in its fourth year we will be giving demonstrations in around 200 locations, such as shopping centres, schools, markets and other community spaces, and giving out free first aid guides to over 100,000 people
  • Demonstrations will take place all over the country – visit our website to find one near you.
  • We’ll be demonstrating five easy-to-follow techniques (choking, severe bleeding, recovery position, heart attack and CPR) at selected locations and distributing pocket-sized first aid guides, providing people with first aid knowledge at their fingertips
  • We are offering free demonstrations to community groups as well – contact us to find out more
  • Since Save a Life September launched in 2010, we’ve given 400,000 people pocket first aid guides – that’s the equivalent of the entire population of a city the size of Stoke-on-Trent

 

References:

* Research conducted by ICM, February 2014, using a weighted sample of 2000 adults aged 18+ in England. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Further information at www.icmresearch.co.uk

 

 

 

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Cycling Apps – St John Ambulance launches First Aid for Cyclists App


First Aid for Cyclists App - St John Ambulance

First Aid for Cyclists App – St John Ambulance

As some of you may know I recently took up cycling as part of my lose weight get fitter mid life crisis.

At the same time I finally fought of my natural luddism and got myself an iPhone. So I have been looking at various different apps which can help me to improve my “cycling experience” as a our friends in marketing would put it.

As regular readers will know I live in London, England which means that I have to contend with rather a lot of traffic when I’m out and about on my bike. I’m sorry to say that a lot of the traffic seems to to realise that driving laws actually apply to them. This by the way seems to apply to most sections of the traffic world. With bus drivers and cyclists being the worst. motor bike riders are far and away the best.


So of course there is a certain amount of concern on my part about accidents which may happen when I’m out on my bike. The concern grows, I might add, the closer I get to central London.

So I was really interested when I read last week that St John Ambulance, the UK’s leading first aid charity, has just produced a free app to provide first aid advice for cyclists. This followed research that shows they are nine times more likely to stop and help fellow cyclists than other road users in an accident. With three million people now cycling three times a week or more , they felt there was a need to ensure cyclists are equipped with the essential skills to help others in an emergency.

So we thought it would be useful to highlight more about this app for our readers!

St John Ambulance research found that on average, cyclists took the least amount of time to come to a cyclist’s aid, just 1 minute and 28 seconds compared to pedestrians’ 1 minute and 51 seconds. Overall cyclists have the shortest response time and respond at least three times quicker than motorists. St John Ambulance has therefore launched their campaign to build the world’s largest first aid equipped cycling community so that every cyclist knows how to help when an accident happens.

The Department for Transport announces a rise in the number of all cycling casualties, up 2% from 2012 – in comparison to the falling number of injuries/fatalities for all other road user types. The highest increase in casualties is amongst adults aged 18-59 years reporting a 5% rise. Overall killed and seriously injured figures have come down (by 10%) but slightly injured figures have risen by 3%, and this is where first aid can be the difference.

Ashley Sweetland, National Cycle Response Unit Lead at St John Ambulance said: “Our unique, free app, launching today, is a new tool specifically aimed at equipping the increasing numbers of cyclists across the country with first aid skills and should be as essential as a puncture repair kit.

“We know many cyclists have accidents on the road each year, sometimes resulting in injuries where first aid could have made a difference. As the nation’s leading first aid charity, we want to ensure that the UK’s cycling community is equipped with first aid knowledge, so that more cyclists can help where circumstances might need them.”

The app, produced by British Company Animmersion, was created using the expertise of the charity’s medically trained staff and SJA’s Cycle Response Unit, their team of highly trained first aid volunteers who use specially equipped mountain bikes, and can be first at the scene of an accident.

You can follow #SaveaCyclist for live updates from SJA and further information on the app, training and first aid advice.

The free “First Aid for Cyclists” app is available to download now on Google Play and the App Store.

You can also have a look at the SJA’s cycling site here.

If you use the app (or other cycling social media) and would like to comment on it please feel free to use the comments section below.